U.S. District Judge John Anderson earlier this month gave RedTubes.us operators two weeks to respond to his proposed recommendations after they failed to appear in an Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act suit. Anderson has yet to officially sign over the domain to Bright Imperial.
Bright Imperial claims that RedTube.us has been in operation for more than a year and that its operators are using a domain name too similar to theirs, which include about 120 similar domains that employ the words "red" and "tube."
Further, the Hong Kong-based company said it operates with a U.S. Trademark Registration for RedTube that includes protection for "matchmaking and social introduction services."
The suit, filed at U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., targets two individuals — Shadi Barakat and Milia Abi Azar — as well as their Lebanon-based business — Flowers Lebanon Delivery — which marketed the dating site RedTubes.us, now inoperable. At its height, RedTubes.us was drawing nearly 8,000 visits a day.
Over time, Bright Imperial pared down the suit, which originally included demands for damages, to only include Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act claims because of issues relating to locating and establishing jurisdiction.
But after legal notices were sent by email and mail, as well as a public notice published in an adjudicated newspaper, operators of RedTube.us never showed up to challenge the matter in court.
Bright Imperial counsel Thayer Preece, of the law firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter and Hampton, did not immediately respond to XBIZ for comment on the case.