{"id":3317,"date":"2011-06-30T00:54:48","date_gmt":"2011-06-30T00:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/?p=3317"},"modified":"2011-08-28T14:05:15","modified_gmt":"2011-08-28T14:05:15","slug":"new-orleans-sno-ball-vendors-claim-rico-violations-in-federal-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/?p=3317","title":{"rendered":"New Orleans Sno-Ball Vendors Claim RICO Violations in Federal Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sno-Balls aren&#8217;t exactly the usual Carnival issues and events I write about, but Sno-Balls and Mardi Gras are certainly cut from the same cloth! Plus, I had a huge urge to cover this emerging story. New Orleans, there&#8217;s no place on earth like it.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3318\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/SNOWIZARD-Machine.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3318\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3318\" title=\"SNOWIZARD Machine\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/SNOWIZARD-Machine.jpg\" alt=\"SNOWIZARD Machine\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/SNOWIZARD-Machine.jpg 500w, http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/SNOWIZARD-Machine-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/SNOWIZARD-Machine-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/SNOWIZARD-Machine-64x64.jpg 64w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3318\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SNOWIZARD Machine<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-2308209459674001\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 728;\ngoogle_ad_height = 90;\ngoogle_ad_format = \"728x90_as\";\ngoogle_ad_type = \"text_image\";\ngoogle_ad_channel =\"\";\ngoogle_color_border = \"CCCCCC\";\ngoogle_color_bg = \"C2C2C2\";\ngoogle_color_link = \"000000\";\ngoogle_color_url = \"666666\";\ngoogle_color_text = \"333333\";\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><br \/>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>A group of vendors that sell New Orleans-style shaved ice are suing a manufacturer of sno-ball machine parts in federal court for alleged racketeering and fraud.<\/p>\n<p>Plum Street Snoballs, Raggs Supply, Special T Ice Co., Parasol Flavors, Simeon Inc., Southern Snow MFG and Snow Ingredients are suing SnoWizard Inc. and Ronald Sciortino in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.<\/p>\n<p>New Orleans attorney Mark Andrews filed the suit June 24.<\/p>\n<p>The suit alleges that SnoWizard violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by gaming market prices and fraudulently claiming patents on the ice-shaving machine&#8217;s components parts.<\/p>\n<p>SnoWizard is &#8220;trying to assert and establish bogus intellectual property rights &#8211; all traceable to the fundamental falsehood that SnoWizard invented &#8230; the whole &#8220;industry&#8221; &#8211; and that everybody else is just a copying, infringing pirate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The suit references litigation from 1984 in which SnoWizard sued Eiseman Products, claiming a patent on a wide array of snoball related products. A federal judge ruled against SnoWizard and the decision was upheld by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1986.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-2308209459674001\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 728;\ngoogle_ad_height = 90;\ngoogle_ad_format = \"728x90_as\";\ngoogle_ad_type = \"text_image\";\ngoogle_ad_channel =\"\";\ngoogle_color_border = \"CCCCCC\";\ngoogle_color_bg = \"C2C2C2\";\ngoogle_color_link = \"000000\";\ngoogle_color_url = \"666666\";\ngoogle_color_text = \"333333\";\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><br \/>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>The suit states that the &#8220;whole SnoWizard ice-shaving machine was never patented. SnoWizard&#8217;s first owner filed a patent that was denied in 1942 and the prominent &#8216;patent pending&#8217; on the door of the ice-shaving machine after 1942 was a false marking.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The false patents also extend to a door hinge, the machine&#8217;s leg design and several custom flavors like &#8220;King Cake,&#8221; &#8220;Cajun Red Hot&#8221; and &#8220;Buttered Popcorn.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment &#8220;of the invalidity and un-enforceability of Defendant SnoWizard&#8217;s purported trademark rights.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"license\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/3.0\/us\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\" style=\"border-width:0\" src=\"http:\/\/i.creativecommons.org\/l\/by-nc-nd\/3.0\/us\/88x31.png\" \/><\/a><br \/>This work is licensed under a <a rel=\"license\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/3.0\/us\/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sno-Balls aren&#8217;t exactly the usual Carnival issues and events I write about, but Sno-Balls and Mardi Gras are certainly cut from the same cloth! Plus, I had a huge urge to cover this emerging story. New Orleans, there&#8217;s no place on earth like it. A group of vendors that sell New Orleans-style shaved ice are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,4,733],"tags":[742,743,744,738,735,736,741,739,1167,734,740,737],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3317"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3317"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3325,"href":"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3317\/revisions\/3325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}