SALT LAKE CITY—The multinational parent company of OnlyFans.com, the U.K.-based Fenix International Ltd., was sued in a Utah federal district court last week by the Colorado-based sattelite television provider Dish Network and the company's popular Sling TV internet protocol television division.
The complaint was filed before the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. Dish and Sling are represented by attorneys from Hatch Law Group PC from Salt Lake City and Baker Botts LLP from Dallas, Texas.
Dish and Sling accuse Fenix and its OFTV division of infringing on four patents that relate to streaming technology protocols adjusting video quality based on the speed and quality of local internet speeds that a user would be connected to via WiFi or a cellular or sattelite connection.
U.S.Patent Nos. 11,991,234, 8,868,772, 11,677,798, and 11,470,138 are the patents in question, according to court documents. The lawsuit filed by attorneys for Dish states, "This case concerns infringement of Dish’s valuable patents related to streaming content to computing devices. Defendants have infringed those patents and used Dish's technology to stream on adult-oriented websites operated or owned by foreign entities located in the United Kingdom.
"Defendants specifically curate web pages tailored to users’ locations, thereby deliberately directing their content at U.S. users," the Dish attorneys go on to argue in the suit. "On information and belief, onlyfans.com and of.tv automatically detect that a user is in the United States, including at the state level using IP-based geolocation, and display content accordingly."
The lawsuit adds that OFTV and OnlyFans provide "infringing technology to U.S. users" and that the court has a primary interest in protecting users in the United States from so-called "sufficient" harm from the foreign companies. Such a claim was made by Dish in previous lawsuits against adult industry platforms and other mainstream IPTV apps.
Dish sued the parent company of adult tube website Spankbang.com last month on similar claims of violating the patents. AVN additionally covered some legal fights between Dish and the parent company of Pornhub.com, Aylo Holdings.
One of those lawsuits was litigated before the Unified Patent Court (UPC) covering the European Union. Dish sued Aylo at the UPC for violating European Patent (EP) 2479680, which covers the same tech disputed in the immediate case in Utah. As AVN reported in June 2025, EP 2479680 protects adaptive rate adjustments, which is the same tech that is protected by the four U.S. patents.
After protracted litigation in the European case, the court ruled for Aylo noting that Dish Network failed to present a case that Aylo’s streaming tech infringed on its rights held by the patent. The court invalidated the patent in Germany while additional litigation advanced.
WebGroup Czech Republic and NKL Associates, the affiliated parent companies of adult tube sites XVideos and XNXX, were also sued in Utah federal court for literally the same allegations.
These cases are not unique or filed only against adult industry companies.
Dish also sued the parent company of Fubo TV, a competitor to Sling TV, for similar claims.
Dish and Sling are owned by EchoStar, a little-known communications and internet giant based in Englewood, Colorado.
