LONGWOOD, Fla. — The company that operates LupoPorno.com yesterday was awarded the domain name LupoPorno.video after an arbitrator ruled that the URL was confusingly similar to the adult tube site and registered in bad faith.
LupoPorno.com, launched in July 2011, garners about 150,000 daily visitors, many of them comfortable understanding Italian, which is used to describe the erotic offerings on the site.
LupoPorno.video, which started up in June 2016 using the same domain name with a .video gTLD extension, offers substantially the same porn content and was described in the complaint filed by LupoPorno.com as “an obvious counterfeit site.”
PB Web Media B.V., operator of LupoPorno.com, disclosed in the complaint that the company previously was granted trademark registration in the Benelux Union for “LupoPorno” and that the counterfeit site was prolific with hosting alleged pirated content.
“As a result of respondent’s confusing and infringing uses complainant has received several copyright infringement notices from third parties referencing content on LupoPorno.video,” WIPO panelist Maxim H. Waldbaum noted in his ruling. “Users have attempted to take down such materials by incorrectly directing the takedown notices to the complainant’s LupoPorno.com website.”
LupoPorno.video’s operator, whose name was redacted for privacy in the case, did not respond to the complaint.
In his decision, Waldbaum ruled that LupoPorno.video’s operator registered and used the site in bad faith, that the operator had no rights or legitimate interest in the domain, and that the domain name was identical and confusingly similar to PB Web Media’s domain name.
Waldbaum ordered the domain LupoPorno.video transferred to PB Web Media.
Industry attorney Lawrence Walters of Walters Law Group, who represented PB Web Media in the action, told XBIZ: “This case involved an obvious infringement on our client’s Benelux trademark registration, and we were pleased with the arbitrator’s decision to transfer the domain. Worldwide enforcement of trademark rights is important for any company, and our client is committed to protecting its valuable brands.”
