9, has presented attorney Adam Stull who represents Extreme Associates with seven demands on behalf of his client.
Lowe: "The following facts give rise to claims in favor of my client for violations of §43(a) of the Lanham Act, USC 1125, breach of contract, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, defamation and invasion of privacy, among other violations of state and federal law:
" [Stryc-9] began working for Extreme in or about July 1998. During the time that [Stryc9] worked for Extreme, she was forced to perform 'anal scenes' without condoms and engage in other unsafe practices, resulting in the contraction of a sexually transmitted disease on your client's set on or about December 8, 1998. When my client exercised her right to 'sick days' due to the foregoing and refused to perform anal scenes on three consecutive days, Extreme refused to pay her and ultimately wrongfully terminated her services.
"Moreover, Extreme has released several videos featuring Martin, including Fuck Pigs and Archer's Last Day without model releases from my client.
"Since [Stryc-9's] employment with Extreme was terminated on or about December 18, 1998, Black and Extreme have engaged in a campaign to destroy Martin's career and infringe upon her service mark, including, but not limited to, announcing in Adult Video News that he owns the name 'Stryc-9' [the name] and tendering a letter from your office to World Modeling dated December 29, 1998 falsely claiming ownership of the Name.
"Please to be advised that, absent prior federal trademark registration by your client, my client has derived valid trademark rights from the use of the Name. [Even if your client applied for trademark/servicemark registration, said registration could be opposed and/or canceled by my client. Moreover, it is my understanding that no such application has been filed. Furthermore, the fact that your client featured Stryc-9 in his movies gives him no more rights to the Name than any other venue or distributor would have to a performer's servicemark (i.e., none).]
"My client has utilized the Name in over 30 adult videos and has been nominated for, and received, adult video awards utilizing the Name. Furthermore, she has filed an application for federal trademark registration.
"Your client's baseless threats have, among other things, (a) impaired the value of the Name; (b) caused my client to lose bookings with, among other companies, Wicked Pictures, and (c) disrupted her business relationship with various producers of adult videos. This would appear to be intentional violations of the Lanham Act giving rise to treble damages pursuant to §35 of the Lanham Act, 15 USC 1117, as well as injunctive and other relief.
"Based upon the foregoing, we hereby demand:
[1] that your clients immediately cease and desist claiming any rights to the Name;
[2] that your clients issue a public retraction in AVN and to World Modeling of their claim to the Name;
[3] that your clients disclose the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all persons and entities to whom letters similar to that sent by your office on December 29, 1998 were tendered;
[4] that your clients cease and desist further distribution of all adult videos featuring my client for which your clients do not have model releases from my client;
[5] that your clients pay my client unpaid wages due in the approximate amount of $760;
[6] that your clients cease and desist engaging in unfair business practices including, but not limited to, threatening third parties who employ my client, and engaging in unsafe sexual practices;
[7] that your clients pay to my client a sum reasonably calculated to compensate her for the general and special damages that she has suffered as a result of the foregoing (i.e., no less than $35,000).
"Please be advised that if your clients fail to comply with the foregoing within 10 days from the date hereof [May 12], my office has been instructed to file an action against Black and Extreme."
Rob Black's comment to all of this is that Extreme has a rebuttal to all of the points and that they're waiting on word from Stull for an official response.
In other Extreme news of the day, Black says the company, after doing an investigation that involved various government resources, has come to the conclusion that former Extremer Van Damage was not a Navy SEAL as he contends. [Damage has been contacted for response but has not replied.]
Black: "This is all proven, and you can take it to the bank. They [Black's contacts] ran it through every official format. Mr. Van Damage [the check was run through Damage's real name, obviously] is no Navy SEAL, never was a Navy SEAL, never even came close to being a Navy SEAL. We faxed over to the people his driver's license because we have a photocopy of it through the I.D.'s. There's no...ever listed in the Navy SEAL's. No...ever went to fucking Panama. No...never went anywhere. He's no Navy SEAL, never was, never will be, never came close, never did any training. This was the one thing that we wanted to fucking hang his balls on to corroborate that he's a fucking liar. It puts his character on the fucking line. He sits there and says he owns those movies and we had a fucking deal, and I say we never had a fucking deal, the deal was, eventually, he might own his titles if everything works out, but, until then, I own everything. It's all my fucking money, motherfucker. He's telling people this and that, well the motherfucker's been lying for three years that he's a Navy SEAL. So how can you believe him if he fucking lies about that?
"He's very confused. He was a Navy SEAL in a gay video. That's a fact. He did a jackoff video and fucking jerks his cock while talking to the guys. His name was Ty, the Navy SEAL. We're trying to get our hands on the tape. Somebody faxed over the fliers to us. [Black couldn't come up with the gay video company name.] This was about four months ago. We forgot about it Van never responded. He was all flustered by it at the time. We're going to see if we can buy the footage and put it in his video, The Damage is Done. We're tracking down the video. Now that everything's come to a head, we sat there and said wouldn't it be great to have this footage in that video. We're calling the distributors. This tape is out of San Diego and they're hunting it down.
"We'll see in the depositions when this all comes out."
Black has been shooting scenes for Asswoman: The Rebirth starring Jessica Darlin.
"We shot an anal scene with Jessica and Luciano," Black said. "There was no 18 man gangbang on a pile of dead fish, just a good filthy anal scene."
