LAS VEGAS — Superstar Media Labs, which is alleged to have sold counterfeit First Time Videos tapes after it was terminated from a distribution deal with FTV nearly three years ago, is facing a motion for default judgment in a suit that seeks millions.
The motion was entered against Long Beach, Calif.-based Superstar Media and its owner Regan Franks last week after settlement discussions broke down and Franks hasn't filed for any extension of time to provide financial data requested by FTV.
FTV, which produces intimate, erotic and solo-masturbation videos, said that it sent a series of cease-and-desist letters starting in 2009 to Superstar Media and Franks, receiving one promise after another from him that the company would remove FTV titles from its online retail store, DVDHotties.com.
Superstar Media, from 2004 to 2008, had a deal with FTV to produce and distribute videos.
As months passed after the initial series of cease-and-desist letters, FTV execs and company attorneys assumed that the alleged infringing material for sale was taken offline, but according to the suit Superstar Media "utilized a technical measure to make the website inaccessible" to them.
"This prevented plaintiff and plaintiffs' counsel from discovering the infringement," the suit said.
In May, however, FTV execs went back to the site and discovered rampant infringement on DVDHotties.com, the suit said, with listings of 219 "FTVGirl" titles for sale.
An FTV investigator later ordered an alleged counterfeit video on DVDHotties.com, requesting Superstar Media to send the tape to a Las Vegas address, which spurred the initiation of the lawsuit.
The suit claims that Superstar Media not only made for sale FTV material compiled from its earlier deal but current online material as well.
FTV is asking for damages of $1 million per counterfeit mark, treble damages amounting to three times statutory damages and attorneys fees. It also seeks at federal court in Las Vegas a permanent injunction enjoining Superstar Media from using the marks.
U.S. Judge Kent J. Dawson already has agreed with FTV over seeking a preliminary injunction relative to the?production and distribution of alleged counterfeit FTV videos?after a court-ordered inspection took place, finding scores of evidence against Superstar Media.
Dawson has yet to rule on the motion for default.
