After being hit with a cease-and-desist order for trademark infringement, Adult site FearFactorFuck.com has undergone a transformation to SickoGames.com.
The site was sent with a cease-and-desist by lawyers of NBC reality show Fear Factor for use of the show’s trademarks in the FearFactorFuck logo. FearFactorFuck owner Rick Prag had to remove FearFactorFuck watermarks from all of his photo and video content and logos from the site itself and his affiliate marketing material, re-brand with the new SickoGames logo, and then upload all of the content to his new URL. In addition, he had to reconfigure his server so surfers could no longer pull up any of the old FearFactorFuck.com pages. The process cost him about two weeks of hard work.
“Was it worth it? I’m not sure, but I’ll live by my decision,” Prag told AVNOnline.com. “It didn’t quite bring the exposure I was hoping for, as far as big-time publicity and then all of the sudden I’m rolling in money – that didn’t happen. If I had to do it again and the circumstances were the same, I probably wouldn’t, just to not have to deal with the headache.”
On the original FearFactorFuck site, which was patterned after the reality show but has nudity and a lot more sex, Prag used the logo of the Endemol-produced show as is and added the word fuck to the end, which prompted the legal action.
Endemol’s lawyers, from the Beverly Hills firm of Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Sloane and Richman, followed the initial C&D with a more strongly worded letter on January 14.
Prag has since e-mailed the firm, making them aware of his compliance, but they have yet to respond.
In the meantime, the traffic and conversion rate for SickoGames.com hasn’t dropped off at all, Prag said.
“A lot of times, I don’t think the name is important anyway. As long as you’ve got good content and a good site that’s going to convert, it will still work. You brand it and people will still like it,” he said.
While this can be viewed as a cautionary tale, the Adult industry has long taken mainstream television and film concepts, thrown in some sex and put them in a blender. So, despite what has been a rather trying experience, Prag said he wouldn’t tell anyone not to use the mainstream for inspiration.
“I’d say go for it, keeping in mind that you could have legal issues. If you’re prepared for that, good,” he said.
