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Nasir and Matt recordtogether for the first time forthe 100th episode. They give some updates onstories discussed in previous episodes of the podcast, including Arian Foster’s failed IPO, the Ryan Seacrest patent dispute with Blackberry, Johnny Manziel’s trademarks, the outcome from the Airbnb squatter, the settlement from the Oakland Raiders cheerleaders, and the podcast patent lawsuit involving Adam Carolla. Special thanks to Co-Mergefor providingspace for the recording.
Full Podcast Transcript
NASIR: All right. Welcome to our podcast, Legally Sound Smart Business, where we cover business in the news and answer some of your business legal questions. My name is Nasir Pasha.
MATT: My name is Matt Staub.
NASIR: And we are at number 99 episodes – or no, what are we at?
MATT: 100.
NASIR: Oh, 100, yeah, that’s right. 100 episodes recording live in… where are we right now, Matt? This is your pad.
MATT: Oh, yeah, Co-Merge in San Diego. Finally made it out here.
NASIR: Voted one of the top co-working spaces in the nation.
MATT: Yeah, number three co-working space in the US, recently voted.
NASIR: Voted by Matt and Nasir Pasha.
MATT: Yeah, I didn’t like it number one, but we’ll work you out of here for a while.
NASIR: Yeah, we’re recording in San Diego together for the first time ever after a hundred episodes and probably last.
MATT: It’s not really live though because this is going to be edited.
NASIR: Oh, that’s true.
MATT: It’s not live streaming.
NASIR: Yeah, though we do have a very wide live audience in the lobby.
MATT: There are a lot of people here for some reason that showed up, yeah.
NASIR: Not for us, though.
MATT: Well, there’s a lot of seats so there’s a lot of space for people to sit. There’s a lot of people outside.
NASIR: I don’t think we’re going to do any question this time around but we’re going to have a nice update on some of the old stories that we’ve covered in these past years – less than a year but in the last hundred episodes – or 99 episodes. So, what do we have starting off?
MATT: Well, I figured, what’s what best place to start than Episode 1? And this is actually pretty funny. So, I’ll give a little bit of background for every story we do just so, if people didn’t listen…
NASIR: No, they listened. Everyone has listened to every episode.
MATT: First episode, we talked about Arian Foster, the NFL player. It was basically an IPO for him, sort of. He was going to get paid $10 million for 20 percent stake of his future income – so, contracts, endorsements, and other business ventures. We talked about this on October. Let’s see. Well, actually, I guess it came out October 21st. I don’t know. We recorded it before that. And he got injured on October 28th and he was out for the season. So, he actually never played… he got hurt on the game on the 28th but, you know, had four carries and then didn’t play for the rest of the year. So, Fantex which was the company that was supposed to do this 10-million-dollar offering ended up just kind of pulling out on this or postponing it. I don’t know if it’s going to ever circle back around because he’s playing this year. Today, we’re recording on a Sunday. He’s questionable for today but he actually has played a couple of games.
NASIR: Yeah, I feel like we had cause of his injury or something because we basically called that as one of the biggest risks in investing – that these running backs get injured all the time.
MATT: Right.
NASIR: Literally within a week. I think we recorded on a Friday and that’s Sunday that occurred, right?
MATT: Yeah, that would have been it, yeah, because it came out on Monday the day after.
NASIR: Okay.
MATT: Yeah, we recorded on Friday, he gets – forget what he heard. He heard something about this seriously on Sunday and then Monday episode came out – our first episode ever and it was already…
NASIR: Yeah, if you guys remember, it was kind of a novel way to raise funds for him. But, what was weird is that, there was no company. So, what exactly is the investment? He’s basically selling future profits that are associated with deals that he makes but, again, it’s not really a business so it was so strange but I don’t know. Seems like gambling to me, if anything.
NASIR: Yeah, and the thing is, with NFL contracts, you get your guaranteed money but, so many of them, the way they’re structured, you can just cut players any time, especially running backs. For them, it’s the quickest they lose it of any player. I don’t know. It still makes sense from the beginning and obviously, you know, it didn’t work out but he had a couple good games this year so maybe they’ll think about it again. But he’s definitely not going to get that 10-million-dollar evaluation anymore.
NASIR: Yeah.
MATT: That’s for sure.
NASIR: Which is not uncommon for other IPOs. I mean, we just had the big one, Alibaba – that one Chinese eCommerce site – and they actually increased their evaluation before the IPO was launched because there was just so much buzz but I don’t know what’s going on with them now. But, anyway, that’s fun stuff. Very funny.
MATT: Update number one our own version of the… well, there’s the Madden curse, there’s the Sports Illustrated curse, I guess the Legally Sound Smart Business curse.
NASIR: Yeah.
MATT: I guess we talked about other players.
NASIR: Yeah.
MATT: I don’t know how they worked out.
NASIR: Well, we’re going to the Chargers game today against Jacksonville.
MATT: You’re going to the Chargers game. Don’t mention any players. Who do you not like? Just mention them and they probably get hurt today.
NASIR: I don’t think I can name one person on the Jaguars team.
MATT: I can name a couple but, yeah, their new rookie quarterback’s supposed to have his first start today so that’ll probably go over poorly.
NASIR: Is that what they’re changing up? Because of their 0-3 record right now?
MATT: Well, yeah, I think. I didn’t see last week’s game.
NASIR: I did see a person with a Jaguars jersey on.
MATT: Really?
NASIR: Seaport Village.
MATT: I was thinking, I don’t know any Jaguars fans.
NASIR: I don’t think they exist and I think they’re all on Seaport Village.
MATT: Yeah.
NASIR: That’s in San Diego, by the way.
MATT: I think people got that.
All right. We’ll get to the next one we have. This is a fun one, too. Ryan Seacrest, BlackBerry, what was the name of it? Typo?
NASIR: The Typo.
MATT: The Typo. If you recall, we talked about this, he created this attachment to the phone to a BlackBerry, well, was it?
NASIR: No, to an iPhone.
MATT: To an iPhone, yeah, but it looked like the BlackBerry keypad.
NASIR: Yeah, because they basically took the best part of the BlackBerry which is the keyboard and slapped it on an iPhone.
MATT: We, at the time, I think, thought it looked pretty similar.
NASIR: Yeah.
MATT: And that’s what a court ruled. When was this? Back in March it looks like. The San Francisco court granted a preliminary injunction against Typo prohibiting the company from selling it because they we’re selling it so bad news for Seacrest. But, he came out, of course, with a Typo 2.
NASIR: Very original name.
MATT: Yeah, which more or less looks like the same – it’s like the exact same thing, it looks like.
NASIR: The last time we posted a comparison between the Typo and the BlackBerry keyboard, I want to see another picture comparing the Typo 1 versus the Typo 2. Wait. Is the picture there showing the Typo 2?
MATT: Yeah, that’s the Typo 2.
NASIR: No way? It looks exactly the same.
MATT: I don’t really get what he changed.
NASIR: But, at the same time, I think we discussed this before. What’s the difference between a keyboard? There’s not very many variances that you can add in there.
MATT: Yeah.
NASIR: But, I mean, BlackBerry’s keyboard was pretty cool and I say “was” because I don’t think anyone uses BlackBerries anymore.
MATT: Yeah, they just had the new release of their… what’s the name of it?
NASIR: Blackberry 2?
MATT: No.
NASIR: Obviously, Seacrest isn’t part of their marketing team.
MATT: What is the name? The BlackBerry Passport.
NASIR: Oh, sounds awesome.
MATT: I saw numbers for it a couple of days ago. Like, they sold, I want to say they sold like half a million in some small period of time but, like in the same period of time, iPhone sold like ten million. It was just, like, outrageous. Obviously, people don’t like the BlackBerry anymore.
NASIR: I’m looking at it now. Do you know what? The funniest part of it is that the keyboard is completely different. Is that touchscreen or is it… I think the keyboard is touchscreen, is it?
MATT: I don’t know. I haven’t even really looked at it.
NASIR: No, it is a keyboard only.
MATT: Is it the one that’s just a rectangle?
NASIR: It’s the size of a passport, basically.
MATT: Yeah, it is. It is different. Okay, well…
NASIR: It’s actually kind of cool.
MATT: That’s why Seacrest has this new thing.
NASIR: I’m probably going to buy one.
MATT: Because this definitely looks less like the old BlackBerry keyboards.
NASIR: Yeah.
MATT: I don’t know. I mean, obviously, they are trying to sell to business people. In that sense, I’m guessing, international business people because of the passport. Well, they have a new CEO, too. I think he was trying to push it this way.
NASIR: Oh, okay. You know what, the fact that they got a preliminary injunction, it’s not a win but it practically is.
MATT: Yeah.
NASIR: Because a preliminary injunction, in order for it, in the patent world, to actually be implemented, the judge has to basically decide that there is a likelihood of success and – think about it – you’re walking into a court room and the judge is pretty much saying, “Well, it looks like they’re going to win without much evidence before them yet.” That’s not really a good starting point.
MATT: Yeah. Well, I don’t know about BlackBerry or Seacreast. I don’t know if any of these thing are going to work.
NASIR: I guess this will be an Episode 200. We’ll see if BlackBerry follows up with the Typo 2 and see if they want to include that in a law suit as well.
MATT: Well, I think before I made the comment on how this is the best news, the best PR that BlackBerry has gotten.
NASIR: Oh, yeah.
MATT: They haven’t done anything.
NASIR: Well, the problem is that half of their publicity is coming from us, you know? We should really get paid.
MATT: Yeah.
NASIR: Money.
MATT: Well, we should mention that we actually struck a deal with BlackBerry and our podcasts just come automatically preloaded on the BlackBerry passport.
NASIR: Yeah. But then, wait, that wasn’t a great deal because we don’t get that many listeners from that aspect.
MATT: The same deal that U2 struck with Apple. We have the same thing.
NASIR: Yeah.
MATT: You can see where each of these respective… Well, I don’t know, U2 is an aging band, they’re not popular.
NASIR: Yeah, we’re fresh.
MATT: We’re on the rise. All right. Well, we’re going to do another football update.
NASIR: Half of our episodes were on football.
MATT: That’s true. Or pizza. I guess we killed this guy’s career, too. Well, he hasn’t done anything yet – Johnny Manziel – because we talked about the trademark “The house that Johnny built” – how there was some controversy over filing the trademark and whether Texas A&M owned it or what have you. So, I guess the first update is this – that Manziel is now filing for his tenth trademark. Keep in mind, this is someone who played one snap last game as his first play in the NFL but there was a penalty. I guess that gets negated. I don’t think that counts as actually playing it.
NASIR: Though he’s never played?
MATT: They ran this trick play for him where it looked like he was on the field, looked like he was arguing with the – I’m not kidding – it looked like he was arguing with the coach, standing on the field. They hiked it because the other team thought he was just arguing then he sprinted down the line. They threw it to him. He caught up but there was a penalty for I think illegal formation.
NASIR: Yeah, so that means the play never happened, according to that rule. That’s funny. I feel like, if I ever play for the NFL, that would happen to me. I would never get to actually play.
MATT: That’s fine. You still get paid. I mean, he’s getting good money to play – better than not playing, I guess.
NASIR: Money is not everything, man. It’s about the glory.
MATT: Yeah. I mean, he’ll play at some point. He’s a rookie. But “The house that Johnny built,” I was looking into this and there was one that was filed December 27, 2013 by which estate sales, oh, proprietorship in Texas, Rachel Fitch. I don’t know who that is.
NASIR: I’m thinking this may be another Arian Foster thing because it’s like there’s so much build up. He’s filed his tenth trademark. Most businesses don’t have that many trademarks, let alone just an individual that plays football, and not to diminish what he does but… and Johnny Cleveland? Not the best. I like “The house that Johnny built.” It’s a little bit better.
MATT: Well, that’s what I was saying. “The house that Johnny built,” there’s been two trademarks that have been filed. He is the second one, January 29th of this year.
NASIR: Filed later.
MATT: Yeah. This one by someone in Texas was filed earlier and it looks like it’s the same.
NASIR: But that was this year right? Might still be challenged.
MATT: Yeah. Well, the first one was in December 2013 and then Manziel or whatever weird company he has, and then the fifty companies he has filed in January. That’s the other thing too. He’s got… what was it? John… what’s his company? Johnny 2? JM2? Something weird.
NASIR: I don’t know who’s going to actually be using these trademarks at the end of the day if he doesn’t do well, if he doesn’t play.
MATT: He never plays. That’s the thing. There’s possible value behind this but he has to play at some point.
NASIR: Yeah, he has to play.
MATT: Well, he has all these endorsements, too, just because he is popular. Cleveland is on the rise with Lebron coming back.
NASIR: Yeah.
MATT: He has the number one best-selling jersey on the NFL site so obviously he has value.
NASIR: Really?
MATT: Yeah, he has value but…
NASIR: I know why because, for the first time ever, Cleveland has some kind of hope and they such have a fan base. They’re like, “Oh, okay.” They’ve been waiting to buy a jersey for someone they like.
MATT: Yeah, I don’t know the last time they had a player that was really, I mean, Jamal Lewis maybe? A while ago but I meant a player worth anything.
NASIR: I haven’t paid attention to the Browns since they became the Baltimore Ravens. They moved, remember?
MATT: Yes.
NASIR: Then the Browns came back.
MATT: Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense.
NASIR: We were going through this updates. But, I don’t know if we related to this to like our listeners’ small and medium-sized businesses. If you are in a business filing trend trademarks, we use these questions all the time. I mean, obviously, you want to file a trademark for things that you are actually using and have some value in it. But, at the same time, filing a trademark is not that expensive. But the problem is you also have to use it in order to maintain your trademark protection. You can’t just come up with an idea. Otherwise, you would have to file for a statement of use.
MATT: Yeah.
NASIR: That’s another thing. Is he even using this trademark if he is not playing? I think, technically, if I was a USPTO, I’d be like, “Let’s actually play a game in order to get these trademarks.”
MATT: Well, I think he is probably selling merchandise with it on there is my guess.
NASIR: No, he has to play the game. That’s the rule.
MATT: Yeah. Well, there was a funny one, too. I can’t find it now but it was like the… Oh, Juanito Futbol. He didn’t file for that. It’s a Spanish version of “Johnny Football.” It was allowed and subsequently registered by a person not tied to Manziel and without his permission.
NASIR: Oh, that’s a good one actually.
MATT: I thought that was pretty funny.
NASIR: It’d be good if he was playing in Texas but Cleveland doesn’t seem a good fit for that.
MATT: Yeah, that’s a good point. I don’t know how much of a Spanish draw he’s…
NASIR: Yeah.
MATT: He’s from Texas, played in college there. But, yeah, in Cleveland, orobably not the biggest Spanish-speaking population. So, what else do we have? Airbnb squatter – this was more recent. We talked about this how, at the time, someone had kind of beat the system and basically had a free place to stay at this condo in California.
NASIR: We forgot to mention, we were guests on another podcast where we talked about all the legal aspects of Airbnb and we talked a little bit about this. We really didn’t update it but just the risk. We talked a little bit more about how renting out your space comes with so much risk, you really have to know exactly what you are doing. It’s not that as easy as people think. I know this guy was in California. Well, this was in Palm Springs, right?
MATT: Yeah.
NASIR: Yeah, and California has like pretty strict landlord-tenant law in favor of the tenant, but they got this guy out, huh?
MATT: Yeah, it looks like Airbnb kind of footed for any additional expense or whatever.
NASIR: Really?
MATT: Yeah, they kind of footed the bill.
NASIR: That’s cool.
MATT: That’s the move to make. I mean, for them, it’s not that much money.
NASIR: It’s not that much, exactly, yeah, especially since they got so much publicity. That’s the issue, too.
MATT: The funny thing too – I mean, just to update kind of the fact – this woman, I don’t think she was even close to where her condo was so she wasn’t around or maybe she just didn’t want to go there. She kind of had people walking around all the time, just checking it out. One day, the guy just left and there wasn’t really any damage or anything – you know, normal wear and tear.
NASIR: Okay, so he was just chilling there.
MATT: Yeah.
NASIR: It could have been worse. It definitely could have been worse.
MATT: Did we mention on the podcast how he had that $40,000 Kickstarter campaign?
NASIR: Yeah, I don’t remember if we talked about it as an update. But that guy, basically, he’s had two campaigns, right? He’s had one where he got a bunch of money, he was still finishing it up and it’s been delayed a bunch of times. But then, he had another one that’s he was raising more funds for which reminds me of that South Park episode.
MATT: South Park? Oh Yeah.
NASIR: Which talks about… I’m not a fan at all. Matt told me about it. But that was a great episode.
MATT: I hadn’t watched South Park in years but it was about the NFL and it was about Kickstarter. I was like, “I’ve got to check this out.”
NASIR: Kickstarter and trademarks. They talked about the Redskins.
MATT: It was pretty funny. Took some shots at the Kickstarter community for sure.
NASIR: The startup community too because, basically, it’s true. These guys post these projects and there is very little obligation. They are basically asking people to invest in their company with no return.
MATT: Yeah.
NASIR: You know, they get some kind of product or whatever. Well, the Kickstarters that are good – and I think most of them try to be like this where you’re almost buying a product, presales.
MATT: Yeah, that’s all it is – presale.
NASIR: But, sometimes, it’s not always like that though, I feel, because sometimes you pay $5.00, you get a button with a logo on there or something.
MATT: Yeah, I never really understood that. I mean, unless I knew the person, I wouldn’t really want to give money first or something. I’m just paying for you to help create your product.
NASIR: To do nothing.
MATT: Yeah.
NASIR: Which was, with the South Park, the premise is that, to use the Redskins trademark because, if you recall, we also covered how the Redskins lost their trademark protection on the USPTL and so forth and I thought that was pretty interesting.
MATT: Three football updates we’ve done so far.
NASIR: Well, it is related to the law.
MATT: Sunday, like I said, it’s football.
NASIR: Football Sundays. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!
MATT: We’re going to the game here for a couple of hours.
NASIR: Yeah.
MATT: Actually, another football story!
NASIR: Oh, nice!
MATT: Wow. That wasn’t even intentional. I just was looking down the line of what we had. Well, this is a request. I asked my wife who listens to maybe a quarter of the episodes.
NASIR: At least she listened to this one.
MATT: Yeah, she did because I said, “Are there any episode?” jokingly asked her, “Are there any other episodes you want to update on?” She said, “Yeah, the one with the Oakland Raiders cheerleaders.” I was like, “Oh, okay. I guess I will look into it,” because if you recall, at the time, it seemed like a poorly structured lawsuit.
NASIR: Oh, yeah.
MATT: Because they kind of went after the wrong people and the NFL was basically saying, “We’re immune to these labor lawsuits. You need to go after the actual franchise.” I guess that’s what they did because they just had a settlement.
NASIR: With the Oakland Raiders.
MATT: Yeah, a settlement with the Raiders for $1.25 million and then I think that covers 90 of the cheerleaders over however many years spent? Yeah, 90 women since 2010, 2011.
NASIR: Oh, okay.
MATT: So, dating back a few seasons, 90 cheerleaders, $1.25 million. It’s pretty good, and this is an addition to fact that ever since this kind of surfaced, the Raiders have upped their pay.
NASIR: That’s fixed everything basically, right?
MATT: Yeah. Basically, instead of paying them, I don’t know how they got around this. Other than the poor pay, they were paying them at the end of the season. They weren’t even paying them, every two weeks.
NASIR: That’s terrible!
MATT: So, they were working the entire year and then just paying and giving them a check for like minimum wage.
NASIR: I mean, I know the Raiders aren’t like the best, most richest team in the NFL but it’s still an NFL team, I mean, geez!.
MATT: And I think they might only have been paying them for the actual game time. So,practicing and all that stuff didn’t count, I want to say.
NASIR: And, if they were late, they would get penalized and so we definitely missed an update because the first news article talks about how NFL was being sued for this and being the wrong party and then all of the sudden the Raiders are the ones settling. So, obviously, they listened to our podcast and fixed their lawsuit.
MATT: Yeah.
NASIR: That could only be the only explanation.
MATT: Only explanation.
NASIR: It’s funny because the settlement is like what they’re supposed to do anyway but now they are being paid minimum wage, they are paid every two weeks, et cetera, and then they have this weird complex formula on getting their wages back from previous seasons.
MATT: I just can’t believe that they paid them a lump sum at the end of the season.
NASIR: Even if there were contractors, right? Even if they were…
MATT: It’s so insane. Because the NFL season, just from the start, the first game ‘til the end, it’s 17 weeks. The time I’m counting is the time preseason and all that so that is such a long period of time to just not getting compensated for anything.
NASIR: And check this out, too. It’s not like they are being paid like an employee like $30,000 at the end of the year. Their annual compensation for the entire season was $1,250. Can you imagine that? I mean, like, how many tickets is that at any given game, right?
MATT: Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense, that’s why the NFL has a lot of problems. Back then, it was a non-profit.
NASIR: Yeah, you’re right. It’s not a coincidence that the NFL keeps coming up in this stuff. If you go back even further with Junior Seau, right? And the whole controversy regarding concussions and things like that and how the NFL’s handled that all the way to how they handled the cheerleaders of the teams, how they handled this domestic violence issue and the trademark issues with this racist team name in Washington.
MATT: Yeah, a lot of problems. I guess I’m just looking through this more now too. There are these other cheerleader groups from teams that have filed – Cincinnati, Buffalo, Tampa Bay, and New York Jets. And there also it looks like a second lawsuit pending against the Raiders.
NASIR: One of the biggest questions, in fact, I was in Northern California giving this presentation on some contracts and someone asked me, “Well, you know, no one does that in our industry.” Like, basically, kind of pushing back a little bit which is good, you know? But here is the NFL. Every team probably handles their cheerleaders the exact same way. And just because everyone else in your industry does it, doesn’t mean that that’s correct. And it’s the companies that actually are a little bit more cognizant of these issues that become leaders. I mean, think about it, if you’re the only company that is compliant with the law and all the other companies in your industry go down because of something like that or they become penalized by it, you are going to benefit. Compliance is important.
MATT: Somehow I just saw this. Someone got their hands on the secret Oakland Raiders cheerleaders handbook.
NASIR: Secret, huh? Is it like a secret menu?
MATT: it doesn’t paint the… yeah, it’s pretty bad. I don’t know.
NASIR: I’m interested.
MATT: Are you looking at it?
NASIR: No, I’m trying to find it.
MATT: The bottom of that article.
NASIR: A horrible Raiderettes handbook.
MATT: Yeah.
NASIR: This is interesting. This is a little dramatic, too. I have in my possession a copy of The Super Secret Official Oakland Raiderettes Handbook which outlines employment policies – the etiquette to football’s fabulous females.
MATT: There is dining etiquette, dresses, how to eat food in front of other people.
NASIR: Ah, very important.
MATT: Basically, it looks very demeaning to the cheerleaders and the females in general. I mean, obviously, it’s the NFL. The funniest thing too is this is going to be really interesting. I don’t know if you know this or if you remember, I think it was in October. Every season, the NFL has like their breast cancer awareness where everything’s pink.
NASIR: Yeah.
MATT: If they’re going to do it again this year, I’m sure like, are they really going to act like they really care about women? Like after all the things.
NASIR: That’s true. That’s a good point. When that comes up this year…
MATT: It’s like, “Hey! We actually care about women.” It’s like, well, you obviously don’t if you’ve seen anything you have done in the last season.
NASIR: There’s already controversy surrounding that charity in the first place of how much money does not go to actual research. But, yeah, you are right, that’s a huge deal. Also, look at a section called Rehearsal Absentee and Missed Games policy. If you guys recall, they weren’t being paid for rehearsal. But, not only that, if they were late, if you miss a Saturday rehearsal or weekday rehearsal, you will not be allowed to cheer that game. This means you will be fined one and a half absences for the missed rehearsal and $125 will be deducted from your end of season pay for not performing on the game day. You will be notified if you are required to perform at the pregame and/or half-time routine and then remain in the dressing room for the duration of the game.
MATT: That’s so ridiculous.
NASIR: That’s hilarious. Since three lates equal one absence and missing a rehearsal before a game is one and a half absences, you can find yourself with no salary at all at the end of the season.
MATT: Why even show up at that point?
NASIR: Oh, wow
MATT: It’s not surprising they settled for $1.25 million.
NASIR: Yeah, who know if that’s even enough? I don’t know how long that goes and how many people it covers but, well, welcome to the minimum wage.
MATT: Yeah.
NASIR: The Raiderettes, congratulations.
MATT: The Raiders is a terrible franchise anyway.
NASIR: Yeah, Chargers rule.
MATT: They are playing in London right now as we speak.
NASIR: What?
MATT: A London Game.
NASIR: Against who?
MATT: Miami.
NASIR: I don’t know why they do that. That’s weird.
MATT: Because they are trying to expand. They want to have a team in London which would be the worst thing ever.
NASIR: That is the worst thing ever. I mean, yeah.
MATT Imagine if you played for that team, you’d be travelling nonstop. It’s awful.
NASIR: I mean, maybe if you went travelling, it’s a little bit better.
MATT: If you had to go there once a year, it’s not bad, but if you’re the team that’s playing, if eight of your home games are in London and your other eight games are randomly sporadically thrown out throughout the US? “We’ve got to go to Seattle this week. “
NASIR: Yeah, you would spend most of your time in the US.
MATT: That’s terrible, really terrible.
NASIR: I support it.
MATT: All right. We have one more update on what else is better than a podcast update? We talked about the awful patent l trolls that went after the podcasting industry – Adam Carolla, Mark Maron, a bunch of those guys, a bunch of the bigwigs. It turns out there was a joint motion dismissed without prejudice, right?
NASIR: Yeah, without.
MATT: Without prejudice meaning that, if they wanted to come back, they could. But, basically, once they did the discovery, they found out, it turns out these podcasters don’t make enough money for us to really go after you. So, they just want to drop the case. Now, remember, at the time, when this news first came out these patent trolls or whoever is representing them wanted to drop the case and I know Adam Carolla and maybe other ones too said, “Nope, we don’t want to do that. You guys started this, you see it out,” and then I guess at some point they just kind of… This is someone who raised all his money through…
NASIR: It was crowdfunding but it wasn’t…
MATT: Yeah, it wasn’t Kickstarer. I think he did like FundMe?
NASIR: Yeah, FundMe I think it was, yeah, which is great. I mean, obviously, he is fighting our fight, too. Because, if they knew how much we get paid from our sponsors for this podcast, we would be next on the list, you know?
MATT: Yeah. I mean, we are not like the other podcasts that don’t make a lot of money.
NASIR: Just so you guys know.
MATT: Yeah, that’s an update from us.
NASIR: We just wanted to brag a little bit about that aspect of our show.
MATT: So, what’s going to be new? Now that we have done 100 episodes, what’s going to be new moving forward?
NASIR: That’s a good question. I think we’re still going to talk about how I hate Yelp and I still boycott them. I think we’re still going to talk about how sauce is more important than our crust in our pizza place which we are going to start, sauce-free crust, right? We decided today.
MATT: That’s a pretty good name, I’ll have to give you that.
NASIR: Yeah. Well, I hope no one takes it. But, sauce-free crust, and you’ll be back in the kitchen advising the cook on some pizza ingredients and recipes.
MATT: Sauce-Free Crust, yeah. That’s a good name. I do like that.
NASIR: As we also give legal advice in the front.
MATT: Yeah, we didn’t really do a good job tying any of this into like actual small businesses.
NASIR: That’s true but, yeah, it was a fun episode. You know, just updating.
MATT: We wanted to do something different for Episode 100 so we did two things different. I guess there is a lot of things but, basically, everything we did was different from what we normally do.
NASIR: We should also cover more Uber and Lyft. Well, I don’t know, Lyft, I don’t hear about them anymore. By the way, I decided too, I didn’t make it official but I’m boycotting Uber too because of their bad business practices. When I was in San Francisco, the taxi cabs were almost just as expensive. You have to pay a tip but pretty much similar price.
MATT: There was also another company too that just kind of got thrown in with all this and that I saw, at least a California, Sidecar.
NASIR: Sidecar?
MATT: Which I haven’t heard of. There is Car2Go which is pretty big in San Diego.
NASIR: Yeah, Car2Go and there is also Zipcar
MATT: Zipcar, yeah. But there is Sidecar – the smartphone app matches everyday people on their own car with people nearby for shared rides.
NASIR: It’s like a carpool, yeah. Okay, that makes sense, and both Los Angeles and San Francisco City filed, I don’t know if it was a lawsuit or whatever but basically alleging some fraudulent activity of Uber because they made some representations of their background checks and, just when I was in Northern California, there was a local news article about how some Uber driver beat some of the passengers to like… He had this big, like, he might lose one eye or something.
MATT: Well…
NASIR: That’s Uber for you. No, just joking. Anyway, so if you guys are listening and you’re in town in San Diego, I’ll see you guys at the game even though this will be released later or a few days later.
MATT: Yeah, middle of the week next week. Pretty confident about the Chargers’ chances today. They are going up against a pretty bad team.
NASIR: Yeah, we will enjoy ourselves.
MATT: Yeah, it should be a fun time.
NASIR: All right, guys. Thank you for joining us, our hundredth episode and looking forward to a few more.
MATT: Yeah, keep it sound and keep it smart.