Mrs. Diana Williams of DD4L taught the world a lesson: do not come for her. And Louisiana-based Southern University just felt the sharp sting of Williams’ manicured backhand slap after slapping her with a lawsuit regarding her trademarking the “Dancing Dolls” name, according to Bossip.
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The choreographer from the Lifetime show Bring It!\ was sent a cease and desist letter for trademarking the Dancing dolls name by the HBCU, a title she has been using for over 20 years.
Southern claimed that it has been using the name through its “Fabulous Dancing Dolls” dance team. So, it’s safe to say the university wasn’t happy hearing that Williams was trademarking the name years after the show ended in 2019.
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But the queen went to Instagram Live to spill the tea, from how it all started to how she responded. And it’s HOT!
In the Live, Williams said that Southern University filed to trademark Dancing Dolls in 2019 without sending any warning or informing the Bring It! coach of their trademarking attempt.
“Nobody ever sent anything to me. I never received any opposition,” she said.
She then continued by stating that there are multiple dance studios that use the name, and the HBCU taking a jab at her is taking a stab at the other dance teams with the same name.
“I probably would have never said anything anyway,” Williams claimed. “Do you know why? Because there are so many dance teams, middle school, high school elementary children, whose teams are called the Dancing Dolls. So when you attack one, you come for all of us. But oh wait. You only came for me because my name is the most relevant in the situation. That’s f**ked up!”
However, according to Williams, the HBCU trademarked the name for only one class, class 41, which states that the trademark cannot be used in the usage of “entertainment in the nature of dance performances, entertainment services in the nature of live visuals with audio performances, namely musical band, rock group, gymnastics, dance, and ballet performances.”
Williams took it a step higher by trademarking under a different class, class 35, which enables her to trademark the name for apparel like socks and hats. This means the HBCU can verbally say they are the Dancing Dolls but can’t have it on any merchandise.
She also trademarked “DD4L” under classes 35, 41, and 25. And did the same for “Buck or Die.”
It gets even better, actually, pettier.
To Williams, this was a chess game, and her last move was a checkmate. She trademarked the school’s “Fabulous Dancing Dolls” name.
“See the serial numbers. It’s going to take about 3 or 5 days to show up in the USPTO,” Williams boasted. “My business owns it. Fabulous Dancing Dolls, my business owns your name now for the usage of dance events, live visual performances. The same class you trademarked ‘Dancing Dolls’ in, now I got ‘Fabulous.'”
The lesson the dancing coach wanted to teach the HBCU…boundaries.
