Media entrepreneur Alki David says his pay-per-view Celebrity Fight Night this Saturday will distinguish itself from a similarly named Valley charity foundation to settle a lawsuit.
The oddball celebrity boxing match will change its name in the future, and announcements will be made in the beginning, middle, and end of the event that it's not associated with the charity, he says.
Celebrity Fight Night Foundation, which has hosted a gala event annually since 1994 under that name, filed a federal complaint this week alleging a trademark violation. The exclusive event ($15,000 minimum for a table) typically features well-known musical acts and primarily benefits the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at Barrow's Neurological Institute.
As the foundation's lawsuit stated, some public confusion about the two events already had surfaced, with at least one news story incorrectly combining the events as one, and the reported loss of a donor who thought it was the foundation that was pairing White House party-crasher Tarek Salahi in the ring with O.J. Simpson trial witness Kato Kaelin.
The boxing match, which will cost viewes $19.95, also features Nadya "Octomom" Suleman vs. wife-shooter Amy Fisher,
The oddball, celebrity boxing match is just one of several programs David
hopes will help promote his live-streaming website, FilmOn.com. Besides
creating digital-media companies, David's also a bit actor who played
roles in the movie The Bank Job and the TV series The Walking Dead.
David says the case wasn't clear-cut because his event owns a trademark
on the name for TV events. But the Valley foundation is a "very
fine organization," he says, and he moved forward with a settlement to show "good
will."
"We don't want to sort of sully the name of anybody else," he says, and he recognizes that the foundation wouldn't want to be associated with a "very commercial, car-crash kind of entertainment."
