A Des Moines events disc jockey who responded to a competitor’s legal claims with a string of contentious messages saying the company’s product “sucks” is now being sued for trademark infringement.
Brian Junge of Des Moines Karaoke & DJ Service is being sued by DJ Trivia, a Georgia company, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.
DJ Trivia offers a variety of entertainment services, including disc jockey music, bingo, and trivia services to consumers in taverns and other venues throughout the United States. The company claims it has had a registered trademark on the terms “DJ Trivia” and “DJ Bingo” since 2017.
In 2023, an affiliate of DJ Trivia allegedly contacted Junge regarding DJ Trivia’s rights regarding the term “DJ Bingo,” asking that Junge stop using that term in connection with his business. According to exhibits and attachments to the lawsuit, Junge responded with a text message indicating he had added the word “video” to his use of the term to avoid any conflict.
Junge wrote: “Listen you stupid childish little boy. The work (sic) videos been added to shut your dumb ass up. Stupid parent company franchise from is not going to be able to enforce DJ Bingo as a trademark. That’s the dumbest bunch of s— I’ve ever heard… It’s not wise to create enemies. Why you got to start stupid s—…”
Since then, the lawsuit claims, Junge has continued to use the terms “Video DJ Trivia” and “Video DJ Bingo,” “VJ Trivia,” and “VJ Bingo,” which the Georgia company argues are “confusingly similar” to its trademarks.
On June 6, 2025, a lawyer for DJ Trivia allegedly sent Junge a formal cease-and-desist letter, objecting to his use of the terminology.
Court records include a copy of a June 8, 2025, letter that purports to be Junge’s response to the demand. The letter states in part: “Are you ignorance? we don’t sell our product as DJ trivia. it’s a VJ with a v, as in music video trivia. it’s not even close to the same product that you guys offer which sucks by the way. Go ahead and do what you think you got to do but the fact of the matter is we do not call it DJ bingo at all … you guys aren’t even providing the same caliber of services let alone do you have a claim against what we’re doing. you are ridiculous and need to get a freaking life.”
The lawsuit alleges trademark infringement and unfair competition and seeks an award of up to three times any actual damages, as well as all of the profits realized by of Des Moines DJ & Karaoke Service through its wrongful acts, plus punitive and exemplary damages due to the Des Moines’ company’s “willful” conduct.
Junge said he had yet to see a copy of the lawsuit and added that he never received the June 6 letter that DJ Trivia claims triggered a response from Junge two days later.
He said he had only received “random” weekend text messages from someone claiming to be an attorney and objecting to the use of his terminology in advertisements and promotions.
“I thought it was a joke to be honest with you,” he said. “We never got any kind of notice or any service of any kind of documentation purporting that they supposedly had a trademark.”
Junge added that he believes the addition of the word “video” to his product names nullifies any claims of infringement. “If your trademark is ‘DJ Bingo,’ that’s not ‘VJ Bingo,’ and ‘VJ’ represents something different than ‘DJ,’” he said. “It’s not the same thing.”
