California-based adult entertainment company TIR Consulting LLC sued cloud services provider CloudFlare Inc. earlier this week, alleging that it provides an anonymous shelter for pirate or counterfeit websites that misappropriate the plaintiff’s intellectual property. In turn, the complaint, which also names doe defendants that operate the sham websites, states claims for direct, contributory, and vicarious copyright infringement as well as unfair competition.
The suit explains that the plaintiff owns a substantial library of original works, all of which are branded with its registered family of trademarks. Since 2015, TIR’s works have been available for purchase on its website, as well as through authorized third-parties. Yet the suit claims that one of TIR’s biggest business threats is widespread and unabated trademark infringement.
Specifically, counterfeit and pirate websites with nearly identical addresses allegedly have “an effective assortment of tools at their disposal to accomplish their pirating and counterfeiting without detection and for great profit for everyone involved except the lawful owner of the content.”
The suit claims this is accomplished with the help of San Francisco, Calif.-based CloudFlare, which provides “an array of internet privacy services, including a content delivery network, and other services which it labels ‘pass-through’ services, and on information.” According to the filing the company “blatantly advertise[s]” that part of the service it sells shields and redacts the true identity of the website’s owners and hosts.
As such, the complaint claims that CloudFlare knowingly assists in unauthorized and ongoing infringement.
The filing further notes that the plaintiff is not alone in its grievances, adding that even after providing proof of infringement, CloudFlare and other third-party providers “still refuse to disclose which persons or companies directly own, control or host the pirate sites – thus they are making a profit by knowingly shielding their customers despite knowing these customers are breaking the law.”
The suit requests injunctive relief forcing CloudFlare to disclose the identity of the owners of domains infringing the plaintiff’s intellectual property as well as damages. The plaintiff is represented by Austin Law Group.
