Steven Crowder's Company Sues CNN and Jubilee Over "Change My Mind" Segment at Talarico Town Hall; Talarico Not Named as a Defendant
The company that owns Steven Crowder's "Change My Mind" trademark sued CNN and the digital media company Jubilee in federal court in Texas on Monday, accusing them of copying the mark and Crowder's signature format during a nationally televised town hall for Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, according to the complaint.
LWC Assets IP, LLC, a Dallas County company, filed the 13-page complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, on Oct. 19, 2026. The case is LWC Assets IP, LLC v. Cable News Network, Inc., et al., No. 4:26-cv-01330. The defendants are Cable News Network, Inc., CNN America, Inc. and Jubilee, Inc. The court docket shows the case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Mark T. Pittman.
The complaint says the case "arises from Defendants' deliberate exploitation" of the "famous" mark to advance the political objectives of Talarico's Senate campaign and to "profit off the goodwill and viewership of Louder with Crowder."
What the Change My Mind Trademark Suit Says
According to the complaint, LWC first used the mark on Oct. 21, 2017, in a video titled "I'm Pro-Gun, Change My Mind," and has since published more than 80 "Change My Mind" videos in which participants debate one-on-one "while seated behind signage prominently bearing the Mark." It says the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office registered the mark on Jan. 14, 2020, as Registration No. 5960565.
The company says it licenses the mark exclusively to its affiliate, Louder with Crowder LLC, and to Crowder, and that it never gave the defendants permission to use it.
The complaint includes side-by-side images of Crowder's sign and a "Change My Mind" sign from the town hall. The defendants "appropriated the Mark itself, together with the precise format and branding for which LWC is known," the complaint says. It says the town hall sign even copied "the use of red on the final word."
The lawsuit says the defendants used the mark "to leverage the goodwill and credibility Steven Crowder and Louder with Crowder have cultivated among conservative and Republican audiences over nearly a decade," and sought "to create the false impression" that LWC "approved of, endorsed, sponsored, or were otherwise associated with Mr. Talarico's campaign."
It also says the defendants "exploited the Mark to monetize the resulting viewership," profiting from "the advertisements broadcast during the town hall."
Talarico Is Not a Defendant
Talarico, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, is discussed throughout the complaint, which has a section titled "Talarico's Campaign." It says his campaign has emphasized "Mr. Talarico's claimed ability to attract support from Republicans and conservatives despite his extreme Democratic political positions."
But neither Talarico nor his campaign is named as a defendant.
Crowder had announced a broader suit. A video posted Oct. 15 on his YouTube channel was titled "We Are Suing CNN, Jubilee and James Talarico." The complaint filed Monday names only the two CNN companies and Jubilee.
Three Claims and Up to $2 Million per Mark
The complaint brings three claims under the federal Lanham Act: trademark infringement, trademark counterfeiting and trademark dilution. It also says the defendants' conduct amounts to false designation of origin and unfair competition.
If the court finds the defendants knowingly used a counterfeit, the complaint says, LWC is entitled to "mandatory treble damages or profits (whichever is greater)" plus attorneys' fees, or it "may elect to recover statutory damages of up to $2,000,000 per counterfeit mark."
The company asks for a temporary order and preliminary and permanent injunctions barring the defendants from using the mark or anything "confusingly similar," along with actual damages, the defendants' profits, treble damages, a reasonable royalty, attorneys' fees, costs and interest.
LWC Assets IP is represented by Kinsey D. Lakey and Heidi B. Roskelley of Platt Richmond PLLC in Dallas.
The allegations in the complaint have not been tested in court.
TDFP has asked the defendants and LWC Assets IP's attorneys for comment and will update this story.
Sources: Complaint, LWC Assets IP, LLC v. Cable News Network, Inc., CNN America, Inc. and Jubilee, Inc., No. 4:26-cv-01330 (N.D. Tex., filed Oct. 19, 2026): https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.428905/gov.uscourts.txnd.428905.1.0_1.pdf ; Court docket: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/74980982/lwc-assets-ip-llc-v-cable-news-network-inc/ ; StevenCrowder YouTube channel, "We Are Suing CNN, Jubilee and James Talarico" (Oct. 15, 2026): https://youtu.be/w5SSzmXklmY
Comments