Porn Service Sues Amazon Over 'FireTV' Name

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Amazon unveiled Fire TV on April 2, and is facing a lawsuit from porn streaming service FyreTV for trademark infringement.

Image: Christina Ascani/Mashable

By Kurt Wagner2014-04-24 23:19:41 -0400

A pornography service is suing Amazon over FireTV, the set top box the company unveiled earlier this month.

Florida-based WREAL is a video streaming company that owns and operates FyreTV.com, a service that enables users to download and watch porn videos. (Naturally, the site is extremely NSFW.) The company also sells a set-top box of its own, also branded FyreTV.

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WREAL filed a formal complaint in District Court in Florida last week, claiming that Amazon is infringing upon the FyreTV trademark, which was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 2008, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by Mashable.

WREAL is seeking a jury trial and monetary damages from Amazon.

Carlos Nunez, who represents WREAL along with his firm Waserstein Nunez & Foodman, told Mashable:

WREAL, LLC, filed the lawsuit to avoid losing the value of its federally-registered trademarks –- its product identity, corporate identity, control over its goodwill and reputation, and ability now and in the future to market and sell its technology under its brand name and to stream any content using its dedicated set-top box.

My client wants to protect its interest in its trademarks by keeping the public free from confusion and ensuring fair competition. In short, it is about fairness.

Amazon did not respond to Mashable's request for comment.

Following Amazon's Fire TV announcement on April 2, some commentators were quick to notice that the web domain FireTV.com was already in use — by FyreTV. The lawsuit cited these reports as examples of confusion caused by Amazon's new product. WREAL claims that the company has spent $1.3 million advertising the FyreTV brand over the last six years.

"At its core, Amazon's Fire TV Product is nothing more than a proprietary STB [set top box] that performs a substantially similar, if not identical, function to the proprietary STB marketed under the proprietary FyreTV trademark," the claim states.

Fire TV is expected to compete with other streaming devices such as Apple TV, Roku, and Google's Chromecast. Amazon's box is $99, comparable in price to Apple TV and nearly three times the cost of Chromecast.

Mashable reporter Jason Abbruzzese contributed to this report.

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Topics: amazon, Apps and Software, Business, Amazon Fire TV, fyreTV, Gadgets, pornography, streaming video, Video