LOS ANGELES — An arbitrator ruled this week in favor of adult entertainment conglomerate MindGeek in a cybersquatting claim, handing over to the company the RedTubeHD.tv domain name.
RedTubeHD.tv in 2015 operated as an adult tube site, and more recently redirected to cam and dating sites. The site was registered to Nanci Nette of Los Angeles, who registered the site in June 2015.
In the case decided this week, Rio de Janiero arbitrator Mario Soerensen Garcia ruled that Nette, who did not respond to the case, was a cybersquatter for registering the copycat name.
Soerensen in his decision found the disputed domain name was confusingly similar to RedTube’s trademark, that Nette had no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the disputed domain name, and that the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith as a commercial adult entertainment website.
Garcia noted Nette, the purported operator of RedTubeHD.tv, had a portfolio of more than 22,000 domain names, many of them comprising words related to adult content, which shows that Nette was aware of the RedTube brand.
As a result, Soerensen Garcia ordered the RedTubeHD.tv domain name transferred to MindGeek.
MindGeek owns an array of adult tube sites besides RedTube, including PornHub, YouPorn, ExtremeTube and Tube8.com, among numerous others.
The company also operates the adult properties Reality Kings, Digital Playground, Twistys and Men.com, as well as other well-established brands.