The July 3 letter from attorney Charles Allen is addressed to Julie Heffelfinger, treasurer of Citizens for Community Standards PAC, and says that use of the name in the referendum campaign willfully infringes on CCV's trade name and trademark rights. It also says that under the Lanham Act, the PAC may be liable for treble damages and attorneys fees.
The Citizens for Community Standards PAC is collecting signatures to initiate a referendum against Senate Bill 16, a law setting hours on adult businesses and mandating no contact between dancers and patrons when the dancers are nude or semi-nude. The bill, which became law on June 4 and is effective Sept. 4, was presented to the Ohio legislature by a signature campaign by Citizens for Community Values.
One Ohio strip club manager thinks the referendum is a bad idea.
"I feel that the strip club trade association is making a mistake by trying to get a referendum on the ballot," Tim Case Walker, general manager of Flamingo Showclub in Dayton, Ohio, told XBIZ. "I'd work to get an injunction in the courts. I think that limiting lap dancing in the state of Ohio to a 'no touch when nude or semi-nude' is a direct violation of the dancer's constitutional rights, but after the defeats of the gambling issue and the no-smoking issues in last year's election, I don't think the strip club association has a snowball's chance in hell of passing the referendum this fall. Not in Ohio."
Representatives of Buckeye ACE were unavailable for comment at press time.