Thread by @Paul_Lesko

And what do we have here? OUR FIRST #THEHOBBY LAWSUIT OF 2023?!?!?

We did it! Just four days in (it was filed yesterday) and we're already basking in trading card litigation!

The lawsuit is captioned Drob Collectibles & Ronaldinho v. Leaf, and at first impression it appears to be the flipside of the Leaf v. Ronaldinho filed in December of last year.

BUT, there's a little bit more here.

So...who wants to do a live read of this bad boy?

But before we get into the new Ronaldinho/Leaf lawsuit, if you'd like a refresher on the month-old Leaf/Ronaldinho lawsuit, here ya go:

So, this new lawsuit is the flipside of Leaf v. Ronaldinho. That lawsuit was brought by Leaf asking the court to tell Ronaldinho to stop making legal allegations against it since Leaf alleges it and Ronaldinho have a license agreement that allows Leaf to produce Ronaldinho cards.

This one, however, Ronaldinho throws the entire kitchen sink and Leaf, alleging TEN different causes of actions including violations of the right of publicity...to trademark dilution...to unjust enrichment...to false advertising...etc., etc.

The lawsuit starts off recounting Ronaldinho's history in football (soccer for us United States-ers)...

...and mentions that Drob is a plaintiff here too because that is who Ronaldinho has assigned his IP rights to.

As in all trademark lawsuits, this one then lengthily describes how Ronaldinho has used his trademarks/nicknames on products and also alleges that his nickname/marks are famous.

The lawsuit then describes Leaf's alleged "Infringing Activities" and "Fraudulent Activities."

Starting first with the alleged infringing activities, the plaintiffs allege that Leaf without permission advertised and sold cards using Ronaldinho's name, likeness, picture, etc...

This section is the flipside of Leaf's lawsuit. Basically, Leaf says, "Look motherfuckers, we have a contract with Ronaldinho" while the plaintiffs here say, "Bullshit you do. That 'license' is not a legal document and besides it doesn't cover all years."

Paraphrasing slightly.

So, it's basically a he-said, she-said over what this one-paragraph document covers.

TAKE HOME LESSSON: IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A CONTRACT WITHOUT AMBIGUITY, MAYBE GO BEYOND ONE PARAGRAPH.

The alleged fraudulent activities of Leaf section is juicier.

Here, the plaintiffs allege Leaf defrauded athletes and consumers by placing counterfeit autographs on its cards...including Ronaldinho.

HOLY SHIT, RONALDINHO WENT THERE.

HE USED THE "C" WORD: COUNTERFEIT.

To back this up, plaintiffs allege that in August 2021, Ronaldinho signed 1,000 autos of "jerseys and numbers" and no point signed Leaf's cards or stickers.

Leaf apparently contends that this is bullshit and that a Beckett authenticator authenticated Ronaldinho's autos.

Plaintiffs contend that's bullshit.

So basically, plaintiffs here contend that Leaf lied about Ronaldinho's (and unnamed others') autos as being authenticated when plaintiffs allege they are counterfeit.

Holy shit on those allegations, right?

Alleging Ronaldinho's are counterfeit is one thing, but alleging that other unnamed athletes' autos are also counterfeit WITHOUT NAMING NAMES OR EVIDENCE is...wow.

Better hope there's support for that.

And that's the gist of the lawsuit!

So what'll happen next?

Well, Leaf will move to consolidate its action with this one by transferring this action to Texas. That'll take some time (and Leaf will win because Leaf's action was the First Filed...which matters).

This will go on for months...and once the case is finally in Texas, we'll start seeing the substance of what's actually going on...so we'll need to wait a bit to see what's happening here.

Although, Brian Gray isn't shy, so I imagine we'll hear from him likely sooner than later.

Also attached to the complaint was the cease and desist sent by Ronaldinho's lawyers. If you'd like to read that, here ya go!

As for the allegations of counterfeit autos, there are quite a few instances of these autos be authenticated by different graders out there.

My initial thoughts: This is a crazy he said/she said here.

Either Ronaldinho did NOT sign autos--meaning Leaf lied and or/is wrong and graders such as PSA and SGC were wrong--or he is wrong and Leaf, PSA and SGC are right.

CRAZY.

Also, there are a few typos within this filing, including specifically referring to LEONARDO Messi...2022 World Cup champion.

Does this qualify as: tell me your lawyers don't follow sports or trading cards without telling me your lawyers don't follow sports or trading cards?

There's also no better subconscious way of throwing shade than NOT capitalizing the name of the defendant.

Now to the most important issue...WHAT CARD IS PAUL GOING TO BUY TO ADD TO HIS COLLECTION OF CARDS INVOLVED IN LAWSUITS?

Well, I already bought a Leaf Ronaldinho auto when Leaf filed its suit in Dec...so, I don't need another...but I'm now "invested" in the outcome of this suit!

And can someone help me out with this? Ronaldinho allegedly only signed "jerseys and numbers."

Ummm...am I dense? WTF is signing "numbers"?

Signing jerseys ON THE NUMBERS, I get. Buy just signing "numbers"?

HELP

And as a quick update...this picture looks pretty devastating for the lawsuit.

Leaf already owns the record of the fastest lawsuit from filing to dismissal (the CeeDee Lamb case - less than a week from Leaf filing suit, to dismissal of suit AND sending out the autos to its customers).

With evidence like this, can this case beat that?