A bitter dispute is tearing apart the family of porn king and First Amendment champion Larry Flynt, as two of his nephews vie to go into the adult-entertainment business that made Uncle Larry notorious.
Flynt, the wheelchair-bound publisher of Hustler magazine, is locked in a bitter legal dispute with nephews Jimmy Flynt II and Dustin Flynt [pictured] to block them from starting a new adult-entertainment video company that the duo want to call Flynt Media.
Larry Flynt has fired off a cease-and-desist letter to his brother’s kids demanding they drop the Flynt name from their new company.
“The law does not recognize surnames as trademarks,” said John P. Hains, an attorney for Larry Flynt. “It causes confusion.”
But the nephews say they are determined to unveil their new adult-entertainment video line at a trade show in Las Vegas next month under the Flynt Media name.
“This is the name of our company,” said Jimmy Flynt II. “He feels because he is a celebrity he can have control over the name in everything. We disagree with that.”
He added that he’s already received trademark acceptance for the name in Europe, and has applications pending in the US.
In an interview with Media Ink, Larry Flynt said that the nephews worked for him until a year or so ago.
“I gave them each $100,000 severance, and they used it to go into business against me,” he said.
He said he would have no objection if his nephews went into another line of work using the Flynt name. But he does object to them entering the same lucrative business that he’s been in for 36 years.
Larry Flynt says he grosses $500 million a year, and claims to be the biggest adult-entertainment company in the country.
Although he said his stable of magazines has been cut to around eight, down from 25 titles, publishing still nets him about $8 million a year in profit.
Larry Flynt said he let his nephews go because “they weren’t productive. The thing about nepotism in business, it only works if they are productive. They had a sense of entitlement and didn’t feel that they had to work.”
Jimmy Flynt II countered, “That’s ridiculous. If that’s the case, why did he employ me for 14 years?”