DALLAS—Aylo and its affiliated companies were sued for infringement of a patent by a niche real estate video management software development start-up company based in Boulder, Colo.
In a suit filed with a Texas federal district court, WellcomeMat claims that Aylo, formerly MindGeek, has infringed on a patent that allows clients of WellcomeMat to use “action tags” to jump through a video and highlight popular points of interest in the clips. This is used by realtors and multiple listing services to provide their clients with an eased user experience for virtual tour videos of potential home purchases. Note that the term “action tags” is Aylo’s terminology.
Aylo and its affiliated companies were collectively renamed from the MindGeek moniker shortly after a private equity firm, Ottawa-based Ethical Capital Partners, purchased it for an unknown sum. Aylo, through its subsidiary Aylo Freesites (a.k.a. MG Freesites), owns and operates a set of popular adult tube sites, including Pornhub, YouPorn, Redtube and other adult tube platforms.
“WellcomeMat’s founders invented methods and systems for video chaptering that, for example, enables individuals to upload video files to an online video platform and add, modify, and delete video cue point information—i.e., particularly indexed positions or tags—associated with those files and further enables viewers to select and utilize such video cue points to navigate to and stream desired content,” argues counsel for the plaintiffs in the filing. The plaintiffs point to a series of content creator guides and marketing collateral as evidence of this.
For example, the lawsuit links to an FAQ page published on Pornhub’s help and support site. Action tags “are indicators you can add to your video’s player bar to help users get to their favorite parts easily. These indicators tag significant events or ‘actions’ in your video.” It is worth noting that action tag management on Pornhub, as described in the lawsuit, is similar across dozens of adult tube platforms and mainstream platforms.
YouTube creators can upload videos, manage, and use ‘timestamp’ tags in a manner that is ultimately similar to action tags on a Pornhub creator’s clip.
“Out of respect for the integrity of court proceedings, our policy is not to comment on ongoing litigation,” said a spokesperson for Aylo in an email to AVN.
“We look forward to the facts being fully and fairly aired in that forum,” the spokesperson said.
According to the legal complaint, counsel for WellcomeMat says that Pornhub’s parent company is infringing on U.S. Patent No. 8,307,286. But what is alarming in this suit is that named with Aylo and its affiliated companies is an independent Pornhub content creator geographically based in or near the judicial district, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Plaintiffs seek a jury trial. Chief District Judge Rodney Gilstrap is the assigned judge for the complaint.
The Eastern District of Texas is regarded in the legal community as a friendly jurisdiction for plaintiffs who file patent infringement actions. The content creator, referred to by his real name in the lawsuit, is independent male talent Jarrod from Texas. His name is mentioned 64 times throughout the 26-page complaint. Corey Silverstein, an adult industry attorney, told AVN in a phone call that the decision to name a single content creator as a defendant is a legal strategy to beat concerns over personal jurisdiction or whether the plaintiffs have a right to bring such an action. Silverstein explained that this is an unfortunate case of the counsel for the plaintiffs “picking a random name out of a hat.”
“They named him as a defendant so that they could establish jurisdiction in a jurisdiction that is historically friendly to patent litigation cases,” Silverstein said. “They’re making a mistake because [Aylo] doesn’t fold to these things. … They’ll seek to invalidate the patent, and they won’t bend over and die. This is ridiculous.”
Chief Judge Gilstrap and his district court have also been accused of being plaintiff-friendly from outside the legal profession. For example, in 2016, Vice News reporter Kaleigh Rogers found that Judge Gilstrap heard over a quarter of the nation’s patent lawsuits, including ‘patent troll’ cases at the time. A Wall Street Journal investigation from 2021 also named Gilstrap for having ruled on cases in which he had a financial conflict—namely, about 138 cases were assigned to his courtroom that also involved companies in which he or his wife held a financial interest. There is no indication that the judge has a financial interest in WellcomeMat.
Silverstein said that the Eastern District of Texas is also called by some in the legal community the “rocket docket,” meaning that the court is favored for litigants who want a quick resolution. “This sort of litigation is ridiculous, and the entire patent system has been grotesquely abused, and large adult companies have been specific targets for years,” Silverstein adds. Patent trolling is common even among adult industry firms.
The plaintiffs are ultimately using Jarrod from Texas to serve as the personal jurisdiction link so that the case can proceed in the district. They also argue that Pornhub’s content creators, through Aylo’s actions, are indirectly infringing on the patent and the intellectual property of their client.
Jarrod from Texas “has indirectly infringed, and continues to indirectly infringe...by taking active steps to encourage and facilitate direct infringement by MindGeek, in the United States, through his use of the accused platforms.” The plaintiffs additionally insinuate that the various model and content creator and partner programs and their participants, even if they’re not subject to the laws of the U.S. or the local jurisdiction of the Eastern District of Texas, are infringing on their patent.
They also argue that Pornhub’s millions of daily users are indirectly infringing on the patent. In the format of this lawsuit, Silverstein expects the litigation will proceed, even with the creator.
AVN received no response to requests for comment from counsel for the plaintiffs or from Texas creator Jarrod by press time.
