Preston Poulter et al v. Ali "Dean" Assaf et al (2021)

[I'm not a Robot]

Can someone expand on the falling out between Preston, Vikki, and DA Talks? Weren't they buying his bullshit when he was claiming Ethan would be charged with a hate crime for publicizing the things he wanted to hide?

 

[Spectre_06]

The damages bit looked super sketchy to me, not surprised the judge is questioning it. They cite a $500,000 demand amount in the cover letter, yet then do absolutely nothing to justify it in the complaint. Heck, they don't even cite $500k anywhere in the complaint. I'd be amazed if their comics had anywhere near that amount in sales, let alone a demonstrable drop in sales of that degree.

Edit: I hope this ends up like that dumbass tattoo artist case though, where the end result is an official record documenting the plaintiff's misconduct and a Streisand effect that amplifies it.

This happened in the Quartering's lawsuit as well against Matt Loter. The judge in that case told his attorney that "it's over $75,000 in damage. Source: trust me, bro" doesn't work for establishing jurisdiction, so they had to redo it to add a factual basis for the claim.

Can someone expand on the falling out between Preston, Vikki, and DA Talks? Weren't they buying his bullshit when he claiming Ethan would be charged with a hate crime for publicizing the things he wanted to hide?

@VIkkiVerse can explain it better, but Dean and Vikki have had no problems calling out all sides when they do stupid shit. Preston, because he's a bippity boppity bitch, can't take even light criticism, but that's not surprising given no one seems to be able to.

 

[5t3n0g0ph3r]

I don't think @VIkkiVerse or @FROG will comment on anything about this case until is over (which could be a month from now).
If there is a settlement, then I'm not expecting anything more said.
If this case is outright dismissed, then maybe they'll say something.
If @PocketJacks and/or Lamont appeal, then @PocketJacks and Lamont might be dumber than Romeo Lacoste.

 

[Smug Freiza]

Can someone expand on the falling out between Preston, Vikki, and DA Talks? Weren't they buying his bullshit when he was claiming Ethan would be charged with a hate crime for publicizing the things he wanted to hide?

I've speculated on this before in the Comicsgate thread but will attempt to explain what we already publicly know.

During late 2020 Preston Poulter's "Comicsgate TM" faction imploded on itself with various individuals disassociating from Preston for various reasons. This event occurred many months after the cuck porn/pegging scandal that engulfed Preston months earlier and is not expected to be the root cause. When the dust settled several of Preston's former allies had abandoned him including DA Talks, VikkiVerse, Mecha McCheese, Zombienomicon, The SWC Brothers, Jon Del Arroz, The Comic Book Hut and several others. The Comic Book Hut publicly called out Preston, after the latter allegedly appeared intoxicated on one of the Hut's livestreams breaking a personal rule of the Hut's channel. Jon Del Arroz left Preston's sphere after Preston publicly scolded him for a perceived victimhood marketing mentality which led to a falling out between the two. It is currently unknown why many of the other individuals left Preston's sphere, but the mass abandonment of Poulter all occurred roughly around the same time of several short months.

As of writing this now; DA Talks and VikkiVerse left to do their own CG styled show, Jon Del Arroz rejoined Comicsgate with Nasser Rabadi, Mecha McCheese became a host of Mike S Miller's Drawn N Quartered Youtube show, Zombienomicon disappeared off the face of the earth, while the SWC Brothers and The Comic Book Hut are largely just doing their own thing.

 

[Strix454]

Can someone expand on the falling out between Preston, Vikki, and DA Talks? Weren't they buying his bullshit when he was claiming Ethan would be charged with a hate crime for publicizing the things he wanted to hide?

This is a short history of the subject.

Preston was basically an indy comics nobody. At the end of 2018, there was a fight within comicsgate over now-meaningless subjects with @FROG on one side and various parties on the other. Preston organized a stunt where he asked @FROG for time on his show to promote his comic and when @FROG didn't respond fast enough, Preston expressed outrage and pushed his way into the anti-@FROG mob that had formed for other reasons.
Around March 2019, the Comicsgate version of the Cuban Missile Crisis happened. @FROG fell out with a bunch of more well known people and everyone went nuclear on each other. This eventually allowed Preston to raise his profile within the anti @FROG movement. Preston used the movement to promote himself and his comics. He eventually started a clip show on youtube where he summarized the various comicsgate drama on a weekly basis. The clip show raised his profile still further.

Eventually a large group of people united by their dislike of @FROG, @FROG's warcampaign and official comicsgate started communicating with each other. This included Vikki, DA Talks and a great many others. Preston started promoting the idea of creating a "good" version of comicsgate in opposition to @FROG's "bad" version. The idea was to create an ecosystem promote and assist indy comics creators. As part of that, Preston created a "writing contest" where indy comics creators would present their scripts and eventually a winner would be picked & given a cash prize. There was also going to be a "shared universe" Wiki where people could use each others characters in their comics.

But there was a problem. Preston was in bed with a Australian crook and con-man named Jonathan Nolan who uses the alias "ZombieNomicon".
Nolan has been lurking in the background of comicsgate since the beginning in 2017. He often was a source of trouble in comicsgate but left few footprints behind after. But his partnership with preston brought him out into the public light. Nolan was putting up some portion of the money for the writing contest and "helping" with the infrastructure for it.
The relationship between Preston/Vikki/DA Talks blew up when ZombieNomicon's con man history got exposed in various places. Vikki/DA Talks went to Preston looking for a response and what they got from Preston was less than satisfying. ZombieNomicon (Nolan) they activated his sleeper agents within the contest and tried to steal all of the intellectual property plus the wiki. Again the response from Preston wasn't satisfactory. Then things blew up and people started walking away from Preston.
The theory is that the whole "contest" thing was a con game designed to get a bunch of people to create intellectual property for free which would then be packaged up by Nolan (and possibly Preston) to be sold on to parties in the entertainment industry. That there were "funny" things going on with the contest and the money involved with the contest. And that ultimately Preston wasn't a guy that anyone should trust, Nobody but Preston and Nolan really knows what went on between them in all these events or what they had planned.

At that point, there were some people who were still loyal to Preston and Nolan. Then there were people who were exclusively loyal to Nolan (Comic Book Hut and Captain Cummings of Comicsgate are two examples). DA talk and Vikki started out fighting with the Preston/Nolan followers. Then the fighting escalated into open warfare with Preston himself.
The theory is that the contest and everything else being done was basically a con game to get people to create free intellectual property which the individuals running the con game could then package up and sell on to the entertainment industry.

Its basically a story of people doing the enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend thing and suddenly discovering they are involved with a really sleazy guy who was likely conning them and taking advantage of them. Then following comicsgate tradition, they all started feuding with each other.

I've speculated on this before in the Comicsgate thread but will attempt to explain what we already publicly know.

During late 2020 Preston Poulter's "Comicsgate TM" faction imploded on itself with various individuals disassociating from Preston for various reasons. This event occurred many months after the cuck porn/pegging scandal that engulfed Preston months earlier and is not expected to be the root cause. When the dust settled several of Preston's former allies had abandoned him including DA Talks, VikkiVerse, Mecha McCheese, Zombienomicon, The SWC Brothers, Jon Del Arroz, The Comic Book Hut and several others. The Comic Book Hut publicly called out Preston, after the latter allegedly appeared intoxicated on one of the Hut's livestreams breaking a personal rule of the Hut's channel. Jon Del Arroz left Preston's sphere after Preston publicly scolded him for a perceived victimhood marketing mentality which led to a falling out between the two. It is currently unknown why many of the other individuals left Preston's sphere, but the mass abandonment of Poulter all occurred roughly around the same time of several short months.

As of writing this now; DA Talks and VikkiVerse left to do their own CG styled show, Jon Del Arroz rejoined Comicsgate with Nasser Rabadi, Mecha McCheese became a host of Mike S Miller's Drawn N Quartered Youtube show, Zombienomicon disappeared off the face of the earth, while the SWC Brothers and The Comic Book Hut are largely just doing their own thing.

I agree with most of that, but I'll list my differences with your narrative:

- The break wasn't over the Pegging scandal. It was over Zombienomicon's (J. Nolan) history as a con man in Australia coming out and Preston's reaction to it. The group was in business with preston involving a comics writing contest. Preston and Nolan were both putting up money. After Nolan's history came out, there were lots of questions directed at preston and not great answers given back.
- Mecha McCheese was (at the time) Zombienomicon's stooge within the group. That came out in the aftermath of Zombienomicon's history coming out. I also believe that mcCheese attempted to hijack the contents of the "writing contest" wiki that the group had set up to put them in Nolan's hands. Some of the earliest breakup fights were between various people and McCheese.
- Comic Book Hut was a pal and stooge of Zombienomicon and his attacks on Preston should be best understood in that light. Zomibienomicon is the probable source of much of the Comic Book Huts misinformation about comicsgate in his "reporting" going back many years.
- SWC bailed on things because they started figuring out something was wrong and then pulled the plug on everything when Nolan's history came out. Nolan had tried to run his con game on them and they saw through it. He wanted them to do a documentary on comicsgate (they refused) and he fed them a long list of BS stories about people in comicsgate trying to look like he knew inside secrets. They covered their side of things with Nolan in a stream on their channel. They cut ties with Preston but don't seem to consider Preston as being worth bothering to fight with in the aftermath.
- JDA eventually fights with everyone and eventually gets on the wrong side of everyone. His leaving Preston was just JDA's typical behavior as far as I could tell.

And while Zombienomicon has publically disappeared, he is almost certainly still around. He has been around CG since the start in 2017 and has always done most of his harm from the shadows. I would not doubt that he is still on good terms with Capn Cummings, Comic Book Hut and Mecha McCheese.

One more thing on Preston if anyone is interested. He was married to and pegged by a women whose family is rather well known in some circles in Dallas. There is a long story about her family that appeared in 2001 in the Dallas Observer. A search for "Dallas Observer rich man, poor man". Her grandfather was a great man, her mother was a grifter and she (the ex-wife) is well on her way to being a bag lady.

 

[5t3n0g0ph3r]

I'll clip the part from Rekieta's stream where he goes over the case and post it here.
BTW, I love that Nick said the writing of this trashfire document was a step above Kevin Landau. That got a chuckle from me.

 

[TheClappening]

Crossposting this from the Rackets thread, when he was looking over the lawsuit

The Demonatrix #1 (Canceled)

Comicsgate™ and Optical Illusion Studios presents: The Demonatrix. A daz 3d adult action adventure comic written by John Lamont.

www.kickstarter.com

https://archive.fo/th1bC

"Eh, that doesn't look as loli-ish."
View attachment 2212169

"Ooookay, now we're getting more into loli..."
View attachment 2212170

"ALL RIGHT, GET ON THE FUCKING WALL."
View attachment 2212171

 

[Captain Manning]

Somebody off the farms sent me a clip of Nick's reaction to the Lamont's "art," and asked me to memorialize it here on the Farms. Here you go. Local archive.

My reaction involved projectile vomiting (not filmed), and straight up saying on Dean & Vikki's show earlier this month that he should be put up against the wall and shot. But this is fine too.

EDIT: Three weeks earlier...

Nick ain't wrong here. It strikes me that the wall is the only reasonable answer. It's like nuking the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

 

[TherapyMan]

Also, they have to prove $75,000 for each defendant, not combine it to reach that number. That means Preston and John have to show a total of $225,000.

Actually, it's for each plaintiff, which would put the necessary total at $150,000 ($75,000 for each plaintiff). A federal court can still exercise supplemental jurisdiction over defendants whose conduct does not amount to $75,000 in damages independently if the plaintiff can show $75,000 for at least one defendant and the additional claim for the other defendants arises from a common nucleus of operative fact. Plaintiffs here only need to allege at least one claim for each plaintiff rises to the amount in controversy requirement of $75,000 (i.e. the court has valid diversity jurisdiction for at least one of each plaintiff's claims).

Spoiler: Example

Plaintiff Preston supplies a factual basis claim against @FROG for a gadzillion gadooka dollars. This meets the amount in controversy threshold of $75,000.
Plaintiff Fuckface other guy does the same.
Plaintiffs then establish a factual basis claims against Dean Assaf for $69.69 and Victoria Kundert for $8008.
Plaintiffs allege that the defamatory conduct contained in the complaint arises from a connected series of facts (common nucleus of operative facts)

Under normal circumstances, a federal court would lack subject matter jurisdiction over Assaf and Kundert since it does not have diversity jurisdiction over those defendants in this example, but because the conduct alleged arises from a common nucleus of operative facts, the court can use supplemental jurisdiction instead. The court does not actually have to do this if it is against the interests of judicial economy or just doesn't want to do so. Nonetheless, since it can exercise a valid subject matter jurisdiction basis to hear the case, the court is not obligated to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

The best bet result for @FROG et al. here would be that plaintiffs trip over their own shoelaces out the gate, fail to satisfactorily amend the complaint as directed, and the lawsuit gets dismissed due to lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The Fein Law Firm obviously isn't concentrating its effort on what amounts to basically nuisance litigation.

 

[Captain Manning]

The best bet result for @FROG et al. here would be that plaintiffs trip over their own shoelaces out the gate, fail to satisfactorily amend the complaint as directed, and the lawsuit gets dismissed due to lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The Fein Law Firm obviously isn't concentrating its effort on what amounts to basically nuisance litigation.

Plenty of people have said it already, but this is calculated to harass, dox, and maybe get them to spend some money. I don't think Preston and Lamont actually expect to win. I'm not even sure if they expect it to get to trial.

According to @TESTEFY-HD in the main CG thread, Preston straight up told him in Discord that he doesn't care if he doesn't win, or this damages his reputation further. He just wants to be a prick. Now this was in VC, with no audio recording, so people can call "bullshit" if they want. I somewhat doubt it constitutes compelling evidence that can be submitted in court (although an affidavit from him would be evidence of a sort, I suppose). But I am inclined to believe him on this one. It fits within all the other evidence. I also have not yet seen him straight up lie.

The biggest lie in that entire complaint is the part about the plaintiffs enjoying a good reputation prior to them being called out on D&V's show. Preston sure didn't. Not since the cuck porn was found. Preston also did Lamont the biggest disservice ever by defending this shit, because Preston is a lolcow that was being watched, and we found Lamont through him. They are both using Preston's attorney.

 

[Spectre_06]

Alright, what do you guys think is more obliterated on Preston Poulter?

1.) His feelings because @VIkkiVerse , @FROG and DA Talks said some things that made him cry?

2.) His asshole after his wife got done gaping it?

3.) His pride knowing we all say him suck his own shit off the strap-on she used?

 

[Strix454]

Looking at various things, I don't get the impression that Preston is all that rich. He seems like a trust fund baby kept on a tight leash. His Dallas (TX) area addresses seem to be out in rather ordinary "family" suburbs like Farmer's Branch rather than in the places where he would tend to live if he had real money. The Farmer's Branch address might be his father's address or he might be living in his parents old house. His California addresses were small apartments typically in the Venice area but far away from the beach. Again, not where a player with money would live.

He seems to have enough money to live on, not to work and has a little left over for play. But not big money. By the quality of work done by his attorney, the attorney is willing to take his money but not do any kind of a good job for him. So far, the filings are just embarrassing. In other words, the attorney doesn't seem motivated by the case or Preston's money. Richard C. Meyers was represented by far better attorneys in the Mark Waid case.

Preston's father owned a wood flooring supply business in Dallas. The estimate of yearly revenue I found was in the 225k range when the business was active. His father died in 2017 and the business likely shut down (or was sold) after. There were at least four children listed in his father's obit and Preston was listed last among them. That means the "cake" had to be split several ways.
His ex-wife (and pegger) Auby Meletio was originally from serious money in the Dallas area. Her parents address was in Preston Hollow which is $$$$$ territory. But she has been barking mad for years and seems legitimately broke these days. Probably broke from expensive habits.

The lawsuit follows a pattern of preston doing something either for attention or as a troll.....then keeping it going beyond sense or reason. The comicsgate trademark being another example. All he has accomplished so far is doxing Vikki. If his attorney is motivated enough and has enough influence in the courts, he might be able to subject @FROG to a lengthy deposition and discovery process. But nothing more than that. If his attorney isn't properly motivated or influential enough, the case will get bounced fast. Federal judges hate cases like this because they are a waste of everyone's time and money.

 

[RodgerDodger]

He basically claims to have "fuck you money." He very well might. I dunno. That claim I think hurts him more than helps him, because it makes him sound like he is just filing this to be an asshole. I mean, it's pretty evident to me he is.

@FROG definitely has the money to mount a very rigorous defense. He just bought a warehouse and Mercedes van for his comics company. Dunno about Dean and Vikki. I wish all of three of them the best of luck.

If anybody wants to get insight into the twisted mind of PP, and especially in regard to this lawsuit, watch this (skip to about the 2:20:00 mark if it's not queued properly). He talks about how litigious he is, and how the release of the cuck porn here on KF hurt him so.

Edit: Pedo porn shit (Lamont) and Vikki and Dean starts at about 2:27:00.

Frog's not gonna have to spend much to mount a rigorous defense. The Court is already on their asses trgarding bullshit. What they are suing over is protected speech. A number of comic related professionals and critics looked at their work and voiced the Opinion that it was pedophilliac. ( Which it rather blatantly is. ) This was a purely opinion statement made in a forum appropriate for such. There were no libelous or defamatory statements of fact. They did not claim the plaintiffs fucked children etc. I also remain at a loss regarding what ass they could each pull $75k in damages from? Nor how they could attribute such damages to defendants. Didn't Amazon and E-bay recently ban this type of art? Possibly othdr crowdfunding vendors? I

There is no actual claim here. "They criticized my art on the internet" is not actionable. Whether or not your art is pedofiliac is not a question of fact for a court to decide. It is a matter of opinion for the observer to decide.

 

[Not Really Here]

Whether or not your art is pedofiliac is not a question of fact for a court to decide. It is a matter of opinion for the observer to decide.

I mean.......They could call in expert testimony........Like maybe a person with 27 years experience in the comic industry.
You know, just for funsies.

 

[jspit2.0]

Somebody off the farms sent me a clip of Nick's reaction to the Lamont's "art," and asked me to memorialize it here on the Farms. Here you go. Local archive.

View attachment 2212293

My reaction involved projectile vomiting (not filmed), and straight up saying on Dean & Vikki's show earlier this month that he should be put up against the wall and shot. But this is fine too.

EDIT: Three weeks earlier...

Nick ain't wrong here. It strikes me that the wall is the only reasonable answer. It's like nuking the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Nick is trying not to vomit.

 

[Strix454]

This is some more deep context on the dispute and how it broke out into open war in February 2021. Alot of this is approximate given that everyone involved has recently done alot of scrubbing.

Vikki and DA Talks walked away from Preston around July 2020 in the aftermath of the Zombienomicon scandal. Vikki & DA Talks then moved into a feud with Mecha McCheese over issues related to Preston's writing contest. That (and Liam Grey) seemed to take up their time for a while.

At (probably) the very end of December 2020, Preston formed his "Preston Knights". The first tweet I was able to find about the Knights was from their leader "Molby" on December 28th. This was controversial with alot of people because it looked like Preston was forming his own version of the retard comicsgate group "warcampaign". That Preston was building a moron mob to go after his enemies on social media.

At the same time, Preston's comicsgate writers workshop show began to be dominated by John Lamont which gave his work a much higher profile among the various people who watched the show. And anyone who saw his work could see the cringe in it. It started to get people talking about it behind the scenes.

Preston around this time also started aggressively flirting with the warcampaign group. This was another really foolish move on his part. It brought heat on preston from the various groups who hated warcampaign but at the same time did Preston no good because warcampaign was a spent force as a group.

In late February 2021, the issues with Preston start to come to a head.. The youtuber "Well Read User" who does rather serious comics reviews, had Preston on his channel and confronted him about concerns that people behind the scenes were having about him. There were concerns about the "Preston Knights" and there were concerns about what Preston intended to do with the Comicsgate Trademark once he had it. Rather than calm things down, Preston acted like a lunatic. Preston bragged about how "Cancel Culture" is ok, how he is going to create a "reign of terror" against his enemies and how he will issue strikes against anyone who uses "comicsgate" without his permission. He also talked about how getting the comicsgate trademark was all about the money for him. Presumably the money he could take from other people in exchange for using it. It was in retrospect breathtakingly stupid in terms of what he said and how he said it It was also interpreted as a declaration of war by Preston on just about the entire community.

It was also done at an especially bad time for Preston to say those things. The demise of warcampaign and Liam Grey being such an easy target had caused a massive internal shift in the factions and alliances within comicsgate. People who had been hostile to each other for years were suddenly talking to each other again. And that meant that there was more unity against Preston than there would have been even six months prior.

In response to Preston acting like a madman on Well Read User's channel, DA Talks did a video on 2-25-2021 which outlined all the various concerns about Preston's behavior including his agressive promotion of John T. Lamont as a creator and the nature of John T. Lamont's work. There was immediate escalation after the video and sides were chosen. Preston spun things as an attempt to "cancel" him and sent out his retard army (Preston's Knights) to fight over it.

On March 1, 2021 the farm's own @Smug Freiza did an investigation of John T. Lamont and his art. After he published the results on the farms, Preston held Vikki and Dean responsible as "the cause" for it.

On March 2, 2021 Vikki does a tweet that essentially confirms that there was still bad blood on all sides going back to the Zombienomicon thing. "According to Poulter, I lost my way when @DA_hides and I had the termerity to point out shitty behavior by Mecha McCheese and Zombienomicon. Poulter had issues with us going after our side." Around the same time, Preston claims that he "made" Vikki and Dean and that their behavior shows ingratitude toward him.

Around this time, the Preston side begins to claim that one of their supports (Skinny) was "doxed". And that the "cause" of the dox was Vikki and Dean (though they had no direct involvement). This was one of those instances where people started using a word (dox) that didn't really apply. Though Skinny was operating out in the open with his own real name visible, people screamed about how he had been doxed. Preston turned this into a wave of propaganda about how he was a victim of a vast conspiracy.

Also around the same time @FROG started to see advantage in the situation and the opportunity to kick an old enemy in the balls one more time. So he started deploying his @FROG charm on the people going after Preston. And with @FROG no longer supporting Warcampaign, old boundaries of hostility were not really there anymore.

On March 5, 2021, Preston starts talking about how he is being "cancelled" and spins a typical comicsgate victim narrative around himself. I think the first threats about LOLSUITS started around this time.

 

[RodgerDodger]

I remain confused with regard to Preston trying to Trademark Comicsgate. He was denied that Mark. For reasons. Whatever makes him think he will succeed?

 

[East_Clintwood]

Whether or not your art is pedofiliac is not a question of fact for a court to decide. It is a matter of opinion for the observer to decide.

Yeah but if we let the court decude it as a quetion of fact we'd have an indisputable legal record that he is in fact a giant nonce.

Whatever makes him think he will succeed?

Brain damage and/or hiring a shyster.

 

[Strix454]

I remain confused with regard to Preston trying to Trademark Comicsgate. He was denied that Mark. For reasons. Whatever makes him think he will succeed?

The trademark lunacy is another thing with a long history. In September 2018, @FROG manufactured a "crisis" over the comicsgate trademark. Unless everyone appointed a "reluctant" @FROG maximum leader of comicsgate, Vox Day was going to take over comicsgate and everyone in comicsgate was going to be "cancelled" & kicked off the crowdfunding sites. Only @FROG and his warcampaign had the power to protect the comicsgate trademark and keep everyone safe. Un-ironically neither @FROG or Vox Day filed a trademark on comicsgate during this great struggle to protect it. But the fight to "save" comicsgate from Vox Day motivated a nobody named Cridious to file for the comicsgate trademark.

Cridious (Antonio Malpica) raised about $38k for a comic (Detective Dead) in 2018. It has not come out and its doubted it will ever come out.
One thing that keeping a trademark requires is that the person who has it uses it. Cridious never did. Around April 2020, Preston noticed the situation, filed his own claim to the trademark and tried to get the trademark claim of Cridious invalidated.
At the time of Preston's application some people thought that he was doing it as a stunt or as a troll. And some people were trolled by the application. But as time went on, Preston pushed it beyond any sort of joke and seemed to really believe he could become the new comicsgate fuhrer if he controlled that trademark. He started raving about the revenge he was eventually going to take once he controlled the trademark which turned alot of neutral people against him.
Then in May 2020, another comicsgate personality (Dark Gift) filed another trademark on comicsgate. Dark Gift had previously formed Comicsgate Comics LLC as a company with the name.
Then in April 2021,. @FROG filed his own trademark application for comicsgate as an "advertising and business" trademark which seems different than the other mark applications which are for the publication of comics (I think). @FROG's application seems IMO somewhat tactical in that it could potentially neuter the power of Preston's trademark even if Preston was granted it. Certain arguments in the application could also result in nobody ultimately getting the trademark.

As far as current status, as best I know:
- Cridious is fighting with Preston legally over the trademark and the issue of if Cridious abandoned it.
- Dark Gift's application received a non-final office action from the trademark office and a notice of suspension. There has been no action since so I think he is out of the game.
- @FROG 's trademark application will get in front of an initial examiner probably later this summer.

Preston might be able to succeed in getting the trademark of Cridious done away with and getting one for himself. But Preston is delusional IMO about what his trademark's scope would
be and what it would allow him to do. And then he would after have to deal with the issues (legal and otherwise) raised by Ethan's new application. And all of this could go on for
several more years legally.

Answering the original question "Whatever makes him think he will succeed?".......I don't think Preston is looking for success in any of the things (the trademark, the LOLSUIT, making a public stand for Lamont's art, etc) he is currently doing. I think its all about struggling to stay relevant and just being as much of a dick as possible.

Cridious's Trademark Application: 88101778
Preston's Trademark Application: 88872841
Dark Gift's Trademark Application: 88919818
@FROG 's Trademark Application: 90648096

 

[verissimus]

Per the filing he is suing 5 people in 5 different states. How much money does he have? Unless this is an attempt at a shakedown this is about to get insanely expensive.

View attachment 2210523
Good luck with that.

What reputation is there to damage? Practically no one knows who either the plaintiffs or the defendants are, and if they did, I'd wager they wouldn't like Preston anyway.