Voice Media, Inc., Ron Levi, Trade News, and Internet Business Services have been handed a court injunction against using the Homegrown Video trademark in connection with the tour page HomegrownVideo.com.
Federal judge Consuelo Marshall handed down the injunction November 1, almost three months after New Destiny Internet Group, the parent of Homegrown Video, won a similar injunction in arbitration against the same defendants regarding the use of the copyrighted online tour for the Homegrown site.
“Obviously, we are thrilled with Judge Marshall’s ruling," said Moffit T., chief executive of Xplor Media, which owns the trademark. "We have been diligently exposing the wrongdoing by Ron Levi and Trade News. Both Judge [Richard] Neal in the arbitration and now Judge Marshall in federal court have ruled against Ron Levi and Trade News."
Moffit said Xplor will prosecute aggressively anyone infringing the trademark. And he added the company looked forward to a federal trial "on trademark infringement and unfair competition to establish our monetary damages."
Xplor attorney David S. Olson said the Marshall ruling meant two highly respected federal judges concluding New Destiny and Xplor showed "a reasonable probability of success on the merits," enough to award "far-reaching injunctive relief.
"This bodes extremely well for the ultimate outcome of the case," Olson continued. "Every argument the defendants have asserted has been rejected. We will now focus our efforts on discovery and look forward to presenting New Destiny’s case to Judge Neal in April, and thereafter to putting on Xplor’s case in federal court."
Another arbitration hearing for New Destiny in the case is set for April 8, 2005. Olson told AVNOnline.com that when that arbitration is completed, there would be a court date set in the Xplor federal case.
Ira Rothken, attorney for Voice Media and Trade News, was unavailable for comment before this story was posted, as was New Destiny/Homegrown Video chief Spike Goldberg.
New Destiny won their injunction in early August, when, in an arbitration hearing, Nash cited "recent evidence" that Adult affiliate program CE Cash, which is owned by Trade News, continued to use the Homegrown tour, "undermin[ing] confidence that [CE Cash] completely ceased the alleged infringement."
Neal noted at the time that New Destiny provided evidence of a July 20 Internet search that showed the Homegrown tour was still accessible through links from a Trade News Web site. July 20 was also the date New Destiny was due to reply to a Trade News assertion that New Destiny, contrary to previous assertions, dealt with Trade News "for years" prior to charging Voice Media with assigning the tour to Trade News without consent.
Rothken at that time said the New Destiny injunction ruling was done more "as a compromise, so that the parties can go on and focus on how to resolve the case," adding that the Neal ruling gave no "manifestation" that the plaintiffs in the case were likely to prevail.
