This Really Isnt Adult Friendfinders Month

[gonzo]

...wonder if Lars will make another statement saying they were forced?
Burn that money baby!!!

Williams-Sonoma Sues FriendFinder

SAN FRANCISCO — In a move that could have wide-ranging effects for the online adult industry, Williams-Sonoma has filed suit in U.S. District Court, charging a slew of online adult entertainment companies with infringing on the company’s popular Pottery Barn trademark to drive traffic to various “pornographic” websites.


The federal lawsuit names FriendFinder, Online Marketing Services, Unimaster, Yeticash, Domain Name Systems, Virtual World Holdings AVV, Moniker Privacy Services, Ales Lexico, John Salmond, Ford Jeske, Andrej Korchev, Vladimir Techl and Dorothy Simpson. Believing that there are other infringers out there, attorneys for Williams-Sonoma also reserved the right to add additional defendants.

“The purpose of this lawsuit is to seek damages and injunctive relief to stop defendants from their practice of using and infringing Williams-Sonoma famous Pottery Barn family of trademarks to identify their explicit and graphic pornographic adult websites,” Williams-Sonoma attorney Gregory Gilchrist said.

The suit alleges that the defendants misuse the Pottery Barn trademarks in a variety of ways, including embedding the term “potterybarnteens” in source code, using “potterybarnteens” as a domain extension and repeatedly using the term “potterybarnteens” in copy throughout various websites.
FriendFinder’s attorney, Ira Rothken, told XBIZ his client “played no role in hosting sites that use the [Williams-Sonoma] marks.”
“FriendFinder is involved because of its affiliate program,” he said. “The way they drafted the lawsuit is disproportionate and wholly inaccurate. Nevertheless, we intend to cooperate fully and terminate any rogue affiliates.

more on the "rogue affiliates" here...

[LadyMischief]

Friendfinder and AdultFriendFinder are two different sites, though. You'd think they'd clarify that

[Hammer]

So, are they actually suing Adult Friend Finder, or Friend Finder? And, if it's not adult friend finder, why did they mention the adult online industry? There's nothing adult about Friend Finder.

[Toby]

As the legal fees mount up, perhaps they'll finally see that it's really more financially prudent to terminate affiliates using unethical and illegal tactics, rather than turn a virtual blind eye.

What goes around comes around...