When Mario Mendoza, creator and webmaster of adult affiliate program LexusCash, received a letter from lawyers for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. threatening him with a lawsuit if he didn’t take the site down, he started laughing. “I thought it was a joke or something,” Mendoza tells AVNOnline.com. “That was the first time I had heard anything from them. I was kind of surprised.”
At it turns out, however, it was no joke. After Mendoza contacted Toyota’s attorney, Eric T. Fingerhut, a partner at Howrey L.L.P.’s Intellectual Property Group, he was told that the letter – which stated that the appropriation of the Lexus name for a pornographic site “dilutes the distinctive qualities of the famous mark LEXUS” – was, in fact, the real deal, and advised Mendoza to cease all use of the name and any similar names by April 10.
LexusCash is home to pornographic images of Mendoza’s girlfriend, 19-year-old Lexus. Although he admits that the moniker is a stage name (culled from relatives who share the name), Mendoza says he thinks it is unfair for Toyota to bully him into not using it.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” Mendoza says. “They tell me it’s a trademark infringement or something. We’re not even competing in the same area.
“It actually kind of offended me that they said I went and registered a name without their consent,” he continues. “On the Internet, you can’t get any domain if it’s already protected by law. It was actually through Yahoo that I got the domain. I don’t see how I could have done anything wrong.”
Mendoza says he plans to fight the lawsuit, and hopes that any press he can get will bring attention to his plight. “There’s no reason if I’m within my rights to give them what they want,” he declares. “I don’t know if they are just trying to scare me or what. But if nobody else knows about this, obviously [Toyota] is the one with more power.”
Representatives from Howrey declined to comment for the story, saying they “could not comment on pending matters.”
