Director Mike John and his production company Parallel Media have been granted a permanent injunction on certain titles in the company’s library that they say Red Light District has referenced, after John left the company in January. The order was granted on May 12 by a California judge.
John's titles are now distributed exclusively through Jules Jordan Video.
The dispute between John and Red Light District stems from John’s complaint that RLD began advertising the releases of No Cum Dodging, Boobaholics and Teen Spermaholics on its Web site, clubredlight.com. John claimed that the titles were references to his previous series, No Cum Dodging Allowed, Boobaholics Anonymous and Teenage Spermaholics, for which John claimed he and Parallel Media own the trademarks. Thus, Parallel Media asked RLD to withdraw the videos from the market.
After RLD’s refusal, Parallel Media applied for a Temporary Restraining Order in state court, and the order was granted. The court subsequently forbade RLD from "advertising, promoting, marketing, distributing, releasing, selling or offering to sell" any video titled Teen Spermaholics or No Cum Dodging. A similar injunction was granted to Parallel Media in mid-June, forbidding the sale or distribution of the titles No Cum Dodging, Teen Spermaholics, Boobaholics or any other titles by Red Light District that are “confusingly similar” to any of the movies in the Parallel Media library.
Ray Tamaddon, attorney for Red Light District, told AVN.com, “Regarding the disputed ownership of the titles, under California law whoever promotes and markets the title has the trademark to the title. Red Light completely financed the production of the Mike John movies in question because Mike John did not have the money to do it and Red Light promoted and marketed those movies.
“However, the judge did issue a temporary restraining order on an expedited basis, with which we disagree. But in the interest of moving forward and avoidance of wasting more time on this petty issue, Red Light stipulated that Mike John can keep those titles.”
