LINCOLN, Neb. - Internet model Adrienne Meints filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Lincoln, Neb., asking a federal judge to order Melissa Midwest to give up a domain name.
In the lawsuit, Meints, who formerly worked with Midwest, claims Midwest's company Meltech Inc. purchased the domain HotAdri.com in February from Octogy Media Partners without her consent. Meints claims Octogy did not have the right to sell the name to Meltech.
Midwest contends she bought the name from someone else.
"We bought it from Steve Adri's ex-photo guy," she said. "He offered it to her at the end of January, but she never returned his message, so he waited a month, contacted us and asked us if we wanted to buy it."
Midwest said the seller showed that the site was registered in his name only.
The site now redirects to TeensLikeItBig.com.
In addition to an injunction that would return the domain name HotAdri.com to Meints, she is seeking damages between $10,000 and $100,000 from Meltech and Shane Harrington, whom the suit identifies as the sole owner or a co-owner of the company.
Harrington said he could not understand why the lawsuit was filed against his company. He maintained that Steve Hoisington of Hoisington Productions was the rightful owner of the domain name.
In another case filed in Nebraska, Meltech is suing Meints on a number of claims, including breach of contract. Filed in the Lancaster County District Court, that suit claims Meltech and Meints in 2006 entered into a contract in which the company agreed to manage and promote websites featuring images of Meints.
Meltech claims Meints violated the agreement by directing the websites' users to view another site she created.
The company also claims that Meints failed to share proceeds from parties, promotions, magazine shoots and other activities.
Meints replied to that lawsuit, stating Meltech owes her payment for revenue she generated for the company's website.
