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ICM files $120m lawsuit over Manwin’s .xxx “boycott”
Kevin Murphy,
October 1, 2012, 20:29:35 (UTC),
Domain Registries
ICM Registry has counter-sued YouPorn owner Manwin Licensing, looking for at least $120 million in damages, saying the porn giant is using its market power to sideline the .xxx domain.
The company claims that Manwin’s antitrust lawsuit, filed last October, is merely one of several attacks against its business.
The counter-suit alleges that Manwin, after trying and failing to invest in ICM, illegally restrained trade by forcing its business partners not to do business with ICM.
The suit (pdf) reads:
Manwin has utilized its dominance in the adult entertainment industry to encourage the wholesale boycott of the .XXX TLD in the industry in order to destroy any competition tat may arise from the commercialization of .XXX and has secured agreement, either express or implied, by those within the industry that they will not do business with .XXX.
Manwin, for example, “coerced .XXX spokesmodels to end relationships with ICM” and “conditioned contracts with third parties on their non-involvement with the .XXX TLD”, according to ICM.
The counterclaims were filed in a California court on Friday, as the latest stage of the two companies’ ongoing legal battle.
The registry is looking for $40 million in damages for Sherman Act violations, trebled.
Manwin claims ICM and ICANN broke US competition law by setting up the .xxx “monopoly”, which both ICANN and ICM deny.
I suspect that Manwin will have multiple defenses available to it, including the fact that *registrars* are typically the ones that market the TLD to registrants. Manwin isn’t responsible for GoDaddy placing .xxx at the bottom of its list of TLDs (it used to be 10th in the dropdown listbox).