The motion follows months of legal sparring between the two companies after what began as a copyright infringement lawsuit filed in federal court in March by New Destiny and later ended up in arbitration.
New Destiny Chief Executive Spike Goldberg is alleging that Voice Media, Trade News NV, and Internet Business Services LLC, collectively misused rights to the "Homegrown Video Tour Site" in a marketing and promotional agreement gone awry. That agreement between the companies was signed in 2000, according to court papers obtained by XBiz, and included a non-exclusive license to use the Homegrown tour page.
New Destiny alleges that Voice Media et al violated that agreement and instead made the tour page available over the Internet without New Destiny's authorization, hence the motion for injunctive relief. New Destiny also claims to have suffered damage to its business and reputation through Voice Media's alleged deceptive business practices.
However, Voice Media argues that New Destiny was able to disable the home tour link at any time. Voice Media also presented evidence in court that it had removed the tour page from the Internet and all of its affiliate sites, and that prior to filing a lawsuit, New Destiny profited hugely from their partnership before bringing the issue to court.
Arbitration oral arguments were heard on July 27 from David Olson, representing the plaintiff, and Ira Rothken, representing the defendants.
The judge reportedly issued the injunctive relief based on the compelling argument that New Destiny claims the tour page is still in use through Voice Media affiliates, whereas Voice Media claims it is not.
"The arbitrator finds, while acknowledging that final decision must await a full hearing on the merits, that serious questions have been raised concerning liability," the judge wrote. And so the injunction was granted.
Under the federal standard, an injunction is typically granted if serious questions are raised as to liability, court papers stated.
Attorney's related to the case were not available at press time.