AVN's Mark Kernes reports on an interesting legal brouhaha developing between Nina Hartley and Nina Footwear, Inc. of New York. The footwear Nina wants the porn star Nina to relinquish her Web address, nina.com to the company. Hartley's business manager Bobby Lilly laughed it off saying that Hartley, who first came to adult industry prominence in 1984, has as much of a right to the name as the footwear company.
Nina Footwear, on the other hand, took their case to Network Solutions, the Judge Wapner of the Internet. Network Solutions informed Hartley it would take steps to suspend her Web address unless a court ordered them not to do so. Lilly tried to work an amicable resolution to the problem but Nina Footwear stood adamant. Now it looks like Hartley's going for a defamation claim against the company in a lawsuit that she's filing to keep her web address.
Hartley's attorney Al Gelbard says that it was defamatory for Nina Footwear to tell Network Solutions that Hartley's use of nina.com "tarnishes" the company. "It's hogwash," says Gelbard. "No one's going to look at a website run by Nina Hartley and confuse it with a shoe company."
