The Florida Republican Assembly has Fought Back
Today we report on the continued antics of the RPOF and their chair Even Powers. You may not know that Evan Powers is a lobbyist. In a post on May 22nd on this website we exposed his corruption as a lobbyist for the Florida Supervisors of Elections little club that essentially killed any legislation to improve election integrity. This man is a joke! Today the Florida Republican Assembly has fought back. We applaud their action today. If you are sick of the RPOF consider joining The Florida Republican Assembly of Brevard County or The America First Conservative Coalition of Brevard County.
Below is communication from our FRA Attorney Rachel Rodriguez responding to the false allegations about FRA by RPOF Chairman Evan Power. Power’s decision to target our Judeo-Christian and Pro-Trump organization is unconscionable. For the record, FRA was the FIRST organization in Florida to endorse President Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024. Power wasted valuable time and resources on frivolous claims forcing FRA to defend itself. The tens of thousands of dollars spent on legal fees could have gone towards VOTE NO on Amendment 4, deserving Republican candidates including President Donald J. Trump. Power’s destructive and divisive behavior demonstrates very bad judgment and equally bad leadership. You are unfit to lead the RPOF and the time is now to replace the lobbyist with someone who puts Florida Republicans First! We have a country to save and do not have time for your divisive behavior, bad judgment, and equally bad leadership. Your lobbyist agenda is NOT in the best interest of the RPOF and America’s agenda. Time to step down NOW!
Here is the actual legal Letter sent to the RPOF.
VIRES LAW GROUP
Rachel L. T. Rodriguez, Esq. www.vireslaw.group 515 N. Flagler Drive, Suite 350
[email protected] West Palm Beach, FL 33401
(404) 354-7402 (561) 370-7383
Date: September 2, 2024
Delivered Via: Electronic Mail
Benjamin J. Gibson, Esq. Shutts & Bowen, LLP
215 S. Monroe St., Suite 804 Tallahassee, FL 32301 [email protected]
Re: Republican Party of Florida Cease & Desist Demands to County Chapters of the Florida Republican
Assembly
Dear Counsel,
I represent the Florida Republican Assembly (“FRA”), who has retained me to address your cease and
desist demands made on April 19, 2024, on behalf of your client the Republican Party of Florida
(“RPOF”). This letter is replicated by additional harassing cease and desist demands on over a
dozen of my client’s local chapters, targeting its members across the state in Brevard, Duvall,
Lake, Lee, Manatee, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Sarasota, Sumter, and Volusia counties.
Your client’s claims, in short, lack merit, and its conduct is poorly disguised harassment,
calumny, and infringement on my client’s and its member chapters’ intellectual property rights in
the NFRA federally registered marks. Rather than persist in threats of legal action and local
Republican Election Committee (“REC”) membership rescission of my client’s members, your client
must cease and desist all alleged “enforcement” actions of its Rule 1(A)(2), and reverse any
actions taken to date in pursuit of this illicit purpose.
September 2, 2024
Page 2
In your letter, you demand that my client “cease and desist your usage of the name, abbreviation,
and symbol of the Republican Party of Florida in association with your operation of the “Florida
Republican Assembly,” to include email communications, use of the FRA website, and social media,
specifically an FRA official Facebook page. You cite FS §§ 103.081 and 106.143(4) and your client’s
internal RPOF Rules of Procedure 1(A)(2) as purported authority for your client’s discriminatory
and unsubstantiated determination that FRA “does not meet any of these exceptions” to the statutory
privilege given to political parties.
As an initial matter, you have not identified any specific emails, Facebook posts, or pages of the
FRA website that you allege use the “name, abbreviation, and symbol” of the RPOF. You further do
not identify which “symbol” is allegedly being used by FRA. A search of the USPTO registration
yields zero results for a general search of “Republican Party of Florida,” and no results searching
for ownership by the RPOF or Florida Republican Executive Committee. There are 19 live
registrations for marks owned by the Republican National Committee, in contrast, and none of these
have been identified by you.
You note “The term ‘Republican’ and the Republican elephant logo have been on file since at least
2015 with the Florida Department of State as official property of the Republican Party of Florida.”
However, a search of Florida registered trade/servicemarks yields no “REPUBLICAN” mark, and indeed,
this is no surprise, since even the US Patent and Trademark Office would require the term
“Republican” to be disclaimed on any mark registration application containing the term. A search of
any easily identifiable “elephant logo” similarly suffers from a failure of results returned for
state registered trade/servicemark registrations. The abbreviations and logo (resembling live
registered marks of the RNC Nos. 74456174, 74426459) identified at the Elections Commission in 2015
are not registered marks of the RPOF nor are the FEC-identified titles and abbreviations the
intellectual property of RPOF even at common law, but rather are RPOF affiliated or associated
names, abbreviations, and logos with the limited protections of FS §103.081, which excludes FRA.
Should your client seek to clarify its intellectual property rights on marks that are eligible for
registration (“REPUBLICAN” not being so eligible), it may do so, but apparently has not.
Therefore, as a purely pragmatic matter, my client cannot comply with your demand because you have
failed to identify the conduct your client is seeking to enjoin.
However, your demand has further fatal legal errors and identifies no authority to require
compliance by FRA.
i) Even if your client had authority to interpret and enforce FS §§ 103.081 and 106.143(4), the
statutory exemptions do apply to FRA, and it is entitled to injunctive relief and other damages for
any actions your client has taken against FRA and its members purportedly under the statutory
provision. Moreover, your argument regarding § 106.143 is unclear and appears to make vast
presumptions related to your unsubstantiated allegations that FRA is unlawfully using the term
“Republican.”
September 2, 2024
Page 3
ii) FRA state leadership and county chapters are granted an express usage license from the National
Federation of Republican Assemblies (“NFRA”) in its federally registered trade/servicemarks, and
indeed, as a subordinate Assembly, the FRA is instructed to use these marks in its operations for
the promotion of NFRA’s brand. Your client’s conduct tortuously interferes with my client’s
business relations and licensing rights.
A. The FRA has been in operation in Florida since around 1998 and is not subject to the
restrictions of FS § 103.081.
RPOF Rule of Procedure 1(A)(2) cannot be lawfully enforced against FRA. The Rule, as amended May 4,
2024, grants sole statutory interpretive authority to the RPOF Chairman regarding whether a member
of the political structures of the RPOF throughout the state may be involved in any other
organization connected with partisan operations in Florida. This is not proper authority for the
Chairman, but for the courts of the state of Florida. Indeed, Florida code provides a remedy by
civil action in the judiciary for individuals who are part of the RPOF state structure and were
removed improperly by the RPOF, and statutory authority governs the enforceability RPOF Rules of
Procedure.
Moreover, FS §103.081(2) provides: “No person or group of persons shall use the name, abbreviation,
or symbol of any political party, the name, abbreviation, or symbol of which is filed with the
Department of State, in connection with any club, group, association, or organization of any kind
unless approval and permission have been given in writing by the state executive committee of such
party. This subsection shall not apply to county executive committees of such parties and
organizations which are chartered by the national executive committee of the party the name,
abbreviation, or symbol of which is to be used, or to organizations using the name of any political
party which organizations have been in existence and organized on a statewide basis for a period of
10 years.”
As an initial matter, all associated portions of the official RPOF name are not inherently
protected by this statutory provision, an issue definitively adjudicated twenty-five years ago,
contrary to your client’s current position. See Republican Party of Duval County, Florida, et al.
v. Kinard, et al., No. 99-02195 CA (Fl. Cir. Ct, 4ᵗʰ Jud. Cir., April 13, 1999) (Order Denying
Petition for Emergency Temporary Injunction sought by plaintiffs including RPOF local Duval county
chapter on the basis that defendants were not proven to be “acting by or on behalf of The
Republican Party of Duval County, Florida” or the RPOF while using the term “Republican;” and that
the “identification of individuals as ‘Republican’ does not infringe on the Party name.”) (emphasis
added). The least exclusive or protected portion of your client’s official name is “republican,” as
it is a commonly used term, denoting a form or type of governance and socio-political philosophy
and structure, which precedes the existence (by millennia) of even the national Republican Party,
established in the mid-nineteenth century.
September 2, 2024
Page 4
Specific to the FRA as an organization, and by extension, its county chapters, the exemption in the
FS § 103.081(2) applies to FRA. The initial founding of the Florida Republican Assembly was in the
1990s, with the organization officially registering in the state of Florida as of November 20,
1998, as a state chapter of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, which was established
prior to the FRA. The FRA is an independent, partisan not-for-profit corporation, claiming federal
exemption under 26 U.S.C. §527, and has been in continuous operations since 1998, and that fact is
evidenced by filings with the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations. In the early
2000’s the FRA operated out of the NFRA headquarters, located in Niceville, Florida. Some local
chapters of the FRA retained their separate filings with the state DOS Division of Corporations,
and when the national headquarters moved from Florida, the organization reregistered with the
state. This double-registration is now resolved with amended filings.
There is no legal requirement under federal tax code that a partisan non-profit entity must
register as an official operating structure, such as a corporation, nor is there a Florida state
statutory requirement that independent political entities must be chartered under any political
party, like the RPOF. For the RPOF to suggest or even demand this obsequious affiliation from the
FRA and its local chapters is to borrow the tactics of organized criminal syndicates, demanding
alliance in exchange for “protection” for independent shopkeepers, when the only real threat to the
shop’s ongoing operations is the syndicate’s own destructive conduct.
B. The FRA has usage rights of and an obligation to promote the brand of the National Federation of
Republican Assemblies, using the organization’s federally registered marks.
The NFRA owns several federally registered marks: i) standard character mark THE REPUBLICAN WING OF
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, Serial Number 87616685; ii) logo mark
of the right-facing elephant with a raised trunk, Serial Number
87616703; iii) standard character mark REPUBLICAN ASSEMBLY, Serial Number
87616717; and
iv) standard character mark NATIONAL FEDERATION OF REPUBLICAN ASSEMBLIES, Serial Number
- The word
“Republican” in these marks is disclaimed, as required by the USPTO, and the NFRA has exclusive
right to their use in the market. To that end, the NFRA has granted licensing to its chapters, to
promote the principles of the NFRA among Republican voters, and to pursue the mission of the
partisan, non-profit organization. The Bylaws of the NFRA (as amended, October 15, 2023) are
explicit regarding the right and obligation of subordinate chapters to promote the brand of the
NFRA, using these marks.
ARTICLE V. STATE REPUBLICAN ASSEMBLIES
September 2, 2024
Page 5
Section 5.10 NFRA Logo. Each State Republican Assembly shall include on their letterhead, website,
regular newsletters, and membership recruitment material, either the NFRA Logo or a logo approved
by the NFRA Board of Directors and the words “chartered affiliate of the NFRA” (which may be
abbreviated or spelled out), and, in all electronic communications, a link to the NFRA website. Use
of the NFRA logo is encouraged to protect and further the brand of the NFRA. (emphasis added)
At such time as the NFRA determines that a State Republican Assembly faces discipline or
dissolution, the bylaws specify “that the NFRA has full authority to discipline any State
Republican Assembly for violation of these Bylaws, including the power to deactivate or revoke the
State Republican Assembly charter and to recover and control the use of the name and style
‘Republican Assembly,’ ‘Republican Wing of the Republican Party,’ the NFRA logo and any other good
will of the NFRA.” (Section 5.08) (emphasis added)
The exclusive rights granted to NFRA in its registered marks may not be infringed by any other
party, including the RPOF; and by extension, the RPOF violates the rights of the FRA by prohibiting
its lawful, licensed use of the NFRA’s registered marks, which it has expressly commanded its
chapters to use in conjunction with their operations. See generally 15 U.S.C. § 1111, et seq.
Similarly, the FRA has the authority, granted by the NFRA, to establish Local Republican Assemblies
(Section 5.17 of NFRA Bylaws), in accordance with FRA’s Bylaws, which must conform with and be
approved by the NFRA. Local Assemblies are granted the rights of use, and the directive to use the
NFRA’s registered marks in operations in promotion of the brand. (Section 5.19, directing Local
Assembly bylaws to conform to the NFRA Bylaws).
No state statutory provision may alter or otherwise require an alteration in the display of any of
NFRA’s registered marks, and no court may so order. 15 U.S.C. § 1121(b). If the Florida
legislature and all state and federal courts may not so abridge NFRA’s intellectual property
rights, there is no authority for your client RPOF to do so, nor will any court enforce such an
alteration in FRA’s display of NFRA’s registered marks licensed to the FRA and its subchapters.
Indeed, your client’s persistence in its course of conduct threatening both FRA and its subchapters
subjects it to civil liability for interfering with my client’s business relations with the NFRA
and with its subchapters and in its business operations.
To date, your client and its officers have taken in unauthorized enforcement of Rule of Procedure
1(A)(2) the following unlawful actions against FRA members:
- Complaint to the Florida Elections Commission against FRA President Peter Kouracos, also Volusia
county REC member; - RPOF Grievance against Duval County REC member Robin Lumb, unlawfully considered pursuant to
Grievance Committee Rule of Procedure B(6); - RPOF Grievance against Precinct Committeewoman (Sarasota County, pct 545) Conni Brunni,
unlawfully considered pursuant to Grievance Committee Rule of Procedure B(6);
September 2, 2024
Page 6
- Cease & Desist letter sent to Birthplace of Speed Republican Assembly;
- Cease & Desist letter sent to Brevard County Republican Assembly;
- Cease & Desist letter sent to Duvall County Republican Assembly, resulting in the resignation of
the State Committeewoman candidate Maleana Gay from the Assembly in order to pursue her campaign in
the primary race; - Cease & Desist letter sent to Lake County Republican Assembly;
- Cease & Desist letter sent to Lee County Republican Assembly;
- Cease & Desist letter sent to Manatee County Republican Assembly, in conjunction with Chair of
the county REC taking REC members who are members of the MCRA off the rolls of the REC, removing
their names for REC meetings, locking REC members out of the offices during pivotal primary
elections, and resulting in Mike Keegan resigning from the Assembly in order to pursue his campaign
in the primary race; - Cease & Desist letter sent to Orange County Republican Assembly;
- Cease & Desist letter sent to Osceola County Republican Assembly;
- Cease & Desist letter sent to Palm Beach County Republican Assembly, resulting in the
resignation of Jodi Schwartz from the Assembly; - Cease & Desist letter sent to Republican Conservatives of Ormond Beach Assembly, resulting in
the resignation of Volusia county State Committeewoman candidate Melissa Thorne from the Assembly; - Cease & Desist letter sent to Sarasota County Republican Assembly, resulting in the resignation
of Allison Sneed from the Assembly; - Cease & Desist letter sent to Sumter County Republican Assembly, resulting in the resignations
of Carl Kruger, Dianne Olsen, and Bob Greene from the Assembly; - Cease & Desist letter attempted delivery to W Volusia County Republican Assembly; and
- Cease & Desist letter sent to SW Volusia County Republican Assembly, resulting in the
resignation of Laura London from the Assembly.
As noted above, the RPOF owns no federally registered marks, and its current image used on its
letterhead with a stylized “O” including an elephant with a raised trunk, facing to the right, is
so similar in appearance to NFRA’s registered mark No. 87616703, that your client is potentially
subject to liability and statutory damages for infringement. The FRA is in discussion with the NFRA
regarding possible legal action with regard to this infringement of the mark.
For the foregoing reasons, as a legal matter, my client will not comply with your unauthorized
demand. Your client RPOF must also cease and desist from enforcement of any kind of Rule of
Procedure 1(A)(2) against FRA current and future members, including but not limited to cease and
desist demands sent by your firm or RPOF or any of its other agents, officers and representatives;
“notifying your website domain provider and Facebook” of any alleged violations of state law;
grievance filings against FRA members; removal of FRA members from county Republican Executive
Committees and/or scheduled REC meetings; filings against FRA members before the
September 2, 2024
Page 7
Florida Elections Commission; and any and all publication of statements alleging that the FRA and
its members are in violation of state law.
Should your client refuse to modify its conduct against FRA, my client is prepared to pursue legal
action.
September 2, 2024
Page 7
Sincerely,
Rachel L.T. Rodriguez, Esq.
