According to various sources, The studio behind the “Twilight” series, Summit Entertainment, filed suit in Federal court against the owner of Twilight.com and its owner.
The studio is suing for copyright and trademark infringement and demanding gains, profits and advantages from the defendant.
The complaint was filed against Tom Marskon, and TM Consulting, in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California on Sept. 2.
According to the lawsuit:
“Summit learned that defendant is using the ’Twilight’ intellectual property on his website in a variety of ways, including posting links to download ‘Twilight’ recordings, posting links for unauthorized Twilight contests and fake casting calls for the ’Twilight’ motion pictures,” according to the complaint.
The studio said the site is “leading consumers to believe that they had reached the official ‘Twilight’ Motion Picture Web site.”
According to the complaint, Markson is being sued for “false designation of origin, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, unfair competition and copyright infringement.”
The studio says they sent him two cease-and-desist letters in 2009.
Based on Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling books series, Summit has released three “Twilight” films since 2008.
Twilight.com as it sits today seems like a pretty bland “fan” site for the movie including links back to Amazon to buy merchandise.
According to Compete.com the domain gets between 11,000-36,000 monthly visitors.
The owners of the domain name seem to be the orginal registrants of the domain which was first registered way back in Feburary 1994.
There are plenty of sites for this movie which seem even worse for the studio than what twilight.com is doing, linking to sites where you can “watch the move for free” which also includes the “Twilight” in the domain:
http://www.watchtwilightonline.net/
http://www.twilight-eclipse-online.info/
So for my money it looks like a grab for the domain with a least one more Twilight movie to come.
Alan says
It’s his own fault, if he is stupid enough to use “twilight” intellectual property and links to
the motion picture then he deserves to lose it.
MHB says
Alan
But doesn’t the studio need to be consistent in enforcing its TM?
There are probably hundreds if not thousands of sites using the movies property some even linking to places you can watch the movie for free (pirated site)
How many of these domain owner have been sued by the studio?
What if that number is none?
[] domains with a meaning [] says
not a correct move, but, unfortunately, the bigger company will win
that’s happened several years ago with the domain armani.com that was not owned by the fashion stylist but by a real person with the same name, that, unfortunately, has lost the sue
[] domains with a meaning [] says
post edit: armani.it NOT .com
David J Castello says
They were sent C&Ds in 2009 and ignored them? Textbook way to lose a good generic. Hope they dodge a bullet.
Gimme the mike, Mike says
“But doesn’t the studio need to be consistent in enforcing its TM?”
In short, no. Other abuses of their ip have ZERO to do with this instance. Your comment assumes they are aware of these other abuses. Perhaps they are, perhaps not but either way they are irrelevant to this discussion. Has google recovered every single infringing typo of their name? Of course not. Does or should that limit their available avenues of recourse in dealing with ancilliary instances. Not.
MHB says
Gimme
“”Has google recovered every single infringing typo of their name?””
I’m not suggesting that A TM holder has to go after EVERY infringing domain, all I’m asking is if this TM holder has gone after ANY other domain or sites.
“Your comment assumes they are aware of these other abuses.”
well you know how I found these two sites?
I Google http://www.twilight and they are on the 1st page not really a tremendously hard or expensive research technique.
So are they really concerned about TM abuse of the movie or do they just want the domain?
My pick
They just want the domain
Maybe Baby says
“They just want the domain”
Well, the owner has conveniently made it available all but giving it to them on a silver platter.
Nat Cohen says
Is the lawsuit for monetary damages or are they also suing for the domain transfer?
Is the lawsuit online?
Chip Meade says
They have the right to go after whomever they wish. Sounds to me like the owner blew it. What the owner should do is sell the name to help pay for his legal expenses. Also those proceeds can then be used to pay any settlement. Can he do that?
MHB says
Chip
No the owner is not going to be able to sell the domain with the lawsuit
DailyJoke.org says
I think the owner has fallen into there trap, looking at the site just now on Twilight.com it is covered with Google Ads all with either Twilight Movie or Book ads.
He did register the name a while back and it is generic but I think the case will be pointed more to how he is profiting from there TM.
If he had just left the page blank or had some other site up non related to the movie he might have stood a chance but we shall just need to wait and see.
Good Luck to him!
Alan says
@MHB
“There are probably hundreds if not thousands of sites using the movies property some even linking to places you can watch the movie for free (pirated site)”
Reminds me of the old LimeWire site, millions of people illegally downloaded files that were copyrighted and yet they were only able to catch a few people that were prosecuted and fined 6 figures. Seems to me that the owner is going to lose the name and any proceeds he made on it due to his own stupidity. Keep in mind that they were sent 2C&Ds in 2009 and ignored them.
Why are the producers of the movie, Summit Entertainment, the bad guys?
LS Morgan says
T*O*T*A*L*L*Y their own damn fault. Hope they lose it.
Domainers really need to stop with the psuedo-solidarity BS when someone goes off the reservation like this. It belittles everyone involved.
Owning a domain name that overlaps with a TM does not give you rights to profit off that mark, regardless of when you registered it. The entire argument for owning overlapping, generic domains is that they have multiple uses… so, what’s the argument again when someone’s using generic names to profit off the TM the domain overlaps with?
It’s like bad cops. We accept that there will always be bad cops, but the ugliest thing to manifest whenever one gets caught are all the good cops who rise to make lame excuses for them.
Cartoonz says
the Twilight movies suck anyway… 😉
…but as for A.R.Mani… he did not lose his .com domain, he WON.