Damon Dash isn’t letting the recent Loisaidas movie lawsuit go away without a fight. Dash and Kanye West were swept up in a lawsuit filed earlier this year, and this month the entrepreneur asked the judge in the case to throw out the case over the use of the Loisaidas name for the film.
The term “Loisaidas,” a slang term for the Lower East Side of Manhattan, is also the name of a band fronted by Michael Medina, who trademarked the name. Medina filed suit again tWest and Dash, who serve as executive producers for the movie, last spring. Dash countered Medina’s legal jab on Aug. 4, and he’s saying that Medina cannot claim the name as his own.
More from an exclusive Bossip report:
Dash asked a judge Aug. 4 to throw out musician Michael Medina’s case against him, which claims Dash used the term “Loisaidas” as his film title even though Medina’s group trademarked the name. Medina’s suit, which was filed in April in New York federal court, alleges Dash’s violent “Loisaidas” movie defiled Medina’s Latin music group of the same name, and has confused fans.
But Dash said his decision to use “Loisaidas” was protected by the First Amendment. Dash also said “Loisaidas” – a Spanish slang term for people from the Lower East Side of Manhattan – can’t be owned by anyone because it’s a common word.
“Plaintiff cannot commandeer and monopolize a term that, as Plaintiff admits, is a common part of local “Spanglish” vernacular and prevent others from using that term,” Dash’s lawyer’s said in his answer to Medina’s suit. “In particular, “Loisaidas” has been used for over 40 years to identify residents who live in the Lower East Side…”
Dash also wants Medina to pay his legal fees connected to the ordeal.
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