Judge James C. Emerson overruled AdultFriendFinder in four of five causes of action of the demurrer. The only element of the motion sustained involved the conversion of Internet traffic, which the judge said wasn’t possible because traffic over the web isn’t tangible property.
AdultFriendFinder, a competitor of Epic Cash’s EpicCams.com website, is accused of having used Zango’s services to have “diverted traffic away from Epic Cash sites and converted Epic Cash’s business to their benefit,” by “taking advantage of plaintiff’s marketing efforts,” presumably when potential consumers are inputting certain keywords or searching for specific sites, which subsequently leads to Zango pop-up ads.
“This was a big win, right on the heels of our victory against Zango in Washington [state],” Epic attorney Gary Kaufman told XBIZ.
“Now we can finally move forward in earnest towards recovering the significant damages that Epic Cash has suffered due to Zango and AdultFriendFinder’s parasitic marketing scheme,” said Kaufman, of Los Angeles-based Kaufman Law Group.
AdultFriendFinder is a unit of FriendFinder Network Inc.
Epic Cash has asked for $750,000 in damages in the case filed at Santa Clara Superior Court.