Friday, Oct 9, 2009    Text size: 

Hunkfest pirated Corbin Fisher’s content to stock its new Android application, Hunkfest Platinum, the company said in a press release.

“We police our copyrights vigilantly,” Corbin Fisher’s General Counsel Marc J. Randazza said. “If you infringe on our intellectual property rights, you pay. No exceptions. When we saw that Hunkfest was using our content to seed their business, we went into action.”

Corbin Fisher is currently developing a mobile-based application of its own.

“We don’t mind healthy competition,” Corbin Fisher COO Brian Dunlap said. “But competing with us by using our own content is intolerable.”

After Hunkfest rejected an offer to settle, Dunlap said Corbin Fisher’s attorneys drew up a complaint to be filed in federal court seeking more than $300,000 in damages.

“We sent them a copy of it the night before it was to be filed,” Dunlap said. “When their attorney saw that we meant business, they came to the negotiating table.”

The settlement amount is confidential, but Hunkfest’s attorney Karla F. González-Acosta said that the amount was “lower than my client likely would have paid at the end of a long and expensive court battle, but it was still substantial.”

With experience handling intellectual property matters for both plaintiffs and defendants, González-Acosta said it was important companies seek good legal advice.

“Unfortunately, before my client retained me, they were under the impression that this was not a serious matter,” González-Acosta said. “My client could have gotten out of this much less expensively had they accepted Corbin Fisher’s initial settlement offer.”

In July, Corbin Fisher announced its vigilant campaign against content thieves and trademark violators. The company called on other content producers to join its legal efforts pursuing violators.

Nevertheless, despite the dispute between Corbin Fisher and Hunfest, both parties agree that they have buried the hatchet.

“Online piracy is one of the biggest threats to this industry, so we have to — and will — be vigilant and aggressive about protecting our rights,” Dunlap said. “However, moving forward, we wish Hunkfest the best of luck as it embarks on a new path of developing its own intellectual property.”