BURBANK, Calif. — MindGeek's licensing division has filed a cybersquatting case against the operator of Brazzers.me.
The UDRP case at WIPO, revealed today, did not detail specific allegations of the claim nor did it name the respondent in the case, which, according to a whois check, points to a person or entity called "Holly Petersen" as the site's registered operator.
Lauched in March, Brazzers.me appears as an ordinary adult tube site but yields a punishing amount of full-screen interstitial ads for non-adult products — tactics commonly used in fake advertising traffic schemes.
MindGeek's Brazzers.com is one of the top adult entertainment membership networks with 30 websites. Branded as the "world's best HD porn site," Brazzers.com offers more than 5,000 downloadable and streaming videos, as well as live shows, on its sites.
MindGeek officials did not immediately respond for XBIZ comment by post time.
Industry attorney Marc Randazza, who specializes in intellectual property cases but is not representing MindGeek in the current case, said that it doesn't matter if traffic is small or large when it comes to dealing with cybersquatters.
"The point is that trademark law requires you to defend your brand or lose your brand," Randazza told XBIZ. "If they didn't go after that, it would allow the brand to erode.
"A lot of adult companies fail to understand that, and have a very lackadaisical attitude toward brand protection. That's not very smart."