Tuesday, 02 October 2012 05:08 Domain News
ICM Registry,the company behind .XXX domain,has recently counter-sued Manwin Licensing,the company that owns YouPorn.com.The Registry is asking Manwin Licensing $120 Million in damages,attorney fees and injunctive relief .
According to the counter claim ,Manwin forced its business partners not to do business with the ICM Registry,after the company failed to invest in ICM.
"Manwin has utilized its dominance in the adult entertainment industry to encourage the wholesale boycott of the .XXX TLD in the industry in order to destroy any competition tat may arise from the commercialization of .XXX and has secured agreement, either express or implied, by those within the industry that they will not do business with .XXX."
The counter suit was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California last Friday .
Manwin was the first to sue ICM Registry and ICANN,claiming that they broke the US competition law by setting up the .XXX monopoly .
The counter suit filed by the ICM Registry is 24 pages long.Some important allegations include :
"Manwin has acted in concert with at least Digital Playground, and their related companies, affiliates, brands, and network of webmasters to boycott the .XXX TLD, and have engaged in predatory anti-competitive acts as discussed above in violation of the Cartwright Act.
Manwin has engaged in libel and trade defamation, including without limitation a libelous press release about this very lawsuit in which Manwin’s (false) allegations were reported as facts, intended to interfere with ICM’s existing and prospective business relationships.
Such actions constitute unfair competition in violation of Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act because they are designed to drive a legitimate market participant out of the market by improper means.
Manwin had knowledge of ICM’s offering of domain name registration to the members of the adult entertainment industry and ICM’s agreements obtained from this offering based on various public announcements, including ICM’s announcement on the successful conclusion of its .XXX Founder Program, which included the orgasms.xxx and casting.xxx domains.
On information and belief, Manwin had knowledge of adult entertainment industry members’ intention to apply for registration of .XXX domains based on communications with those members and/or Internet publications expressing these members’ intention to apply for registration.
On information and belief, Manwin intended to disrupt the economic relationship between ICM and these industry members who intended to apply for .XXX registrations by indicating that Manwin would not take video uploads, links, sites or ads from .XXX sites.
The actions ofManwin disrupted the relationship ICM had with these industry members who intended to apply for .XXX registrations. Manwin’s actions deterred these parties from purchasing .XXX domain names because their ability to monetize such domain names would be greatly inhibited by Manwin’s boycott.
These parties decided to forego their applications to register .XXX domain names with ICM as a result of Manwin’s actions."
