According to xbiznewswire.com, the parent company of the Exxxotica adult trade show filed suit against a competing adult-consumer show operator Adultcon, claiming that its owner is squatting on 19 domain names.
The complaint, was filed Tuesday at U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
There is currently a annual show for Exxxotica Miami Beach, a Exxxotica New Jersey and a new adult show to be held in Los Angeles in July.
Adultcon is holding its 19th annual adult show in Los Angeles in September which is simply called Adultcon.
Adultcon also is hosting an adult show in Las Vegas in November.
In the complaint, Exxxotica said that registered its name with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2008 and that Adultcon operators “intended to divert customers … for commercial gain and with the intent to tarnish or disparage the mark by creating a likelihood of confusion as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation and endorsement of the infringing sites.”
Interestingly enough the domain name exxxotica.com, is being directed to an adult site and does not appear to be owned by the trademark holder.
Exxxotica counsel claims Adultcon’s operator registered similar-sounding website names on Jan. 15, just months before Exxxotica announced it would be rolling out a show in Los Angeles.
The domain names at issues in the are:
Exxxotica-lv.com, ExxxoticaExpo-LA.com, ExxxoticaExpo-LV.com, ExxxoticaExpoLA.com, ExxxoticaExpoLV.com, ExxxoticaLA.com, ExxxoticaLasVegas.com, ExxxoticaLosAngeles.com, Exxxoticalv.com; ExxxoticaVegas.com; ExoticaExpo-LA.com, ExoticaExpo-LV.com, ExoticaExpoLA.com, ExoticaExpoLV.com, ExoticaLA.com, ExoticaLosAngeles.com, ExoticaLV.com, ExoticavaLasVegas.com and ExoticaVegas.com.
Each of the 19 domain names currently redirect to Adultcon.com
The suit seeks not more than damages $100,000 for each alleged cybersquatted domain name
A few days ago in response to a blog post I wrote about that .XXX wasn’t just for adult sites, a commentator asked what was the trademark protection afforded to adult sites. I answered the same as for non-adult sites.
Maybe Adultcon should have read that post.
Not all adult sites/names can get registered TM protection (at least in the USA). For example, look up the application for CUMFIESTA in the USPTO database. It was denied, appealed, and then abandoned.
http://thettablog.blogspot.com/2009/05/ttab-affirms-two-more-section-2a.html
“The Board concluded that the marks “would be offensive to a substantial composite of the general public and [are] therefore prohibited by Section 2.”
UPDATE
http://www.xbiznewswire.com/view.php?id=124327