Barry Diller owner of IAC worth an estimated $1.6 Billion is adding to the companies lining up to sue Alki David owner of BarryDriller.com an online streaming TV site.
This isnt the first time that Alki David has had issues is first company which operates FilmOn.tv was sued by CBS and other broadcasters. David recently reached a settlement whereby he agreed to pay the networks $1.6 million and to end the litigation but he vowed to continue on with a new service.
Well looks like this new service is BarryDriller.com and Barry Diller isn’t to happy – We can assume that the choice of name is because Barry Diller is a large financial backer of a competing site Aereo.
In a story covered on The Hollywood Reporter – You can read here – is noted as saying “Fox is a great company. Charlie Sheen, one of our shareholders, is having a great time with FX right now. They should be hugging us not suing us. But if a lawsuit is what they want, then so be it. Remember what happened with CBS.”
The suit by Barry Diller alleges that BarryDriller.com is attempting to “associate their service with Plaintiff.”
“The terms ‘BarryDriller.com,’ ‘BarryDriller’ and ‘Barry Driller’ are substantially similar to Plaintiff’s name, ‘Barry Diller,’ and are therefore likely to mislead consumers into believing that there is an association between Plaintiff and ‘BarryDriller.com’ when in fact there is not,” the lawsuit reads.
Alleging false designation of origin, violation of the right of publicity and cybersquatting, the suit is seeking a permanent injunction against David using BarryDriller.com and similar names, and for the domain name BarryDriller.com to be transferred to Diller. The suit also seeks unspecified compensatory, general, statutory and exemplary damages, plus interest, attorneys’ fees and expenses.
Diller’s Aereo has faced its own legal challenges, but has so far weathered them. The company, which launched its service in March, was sued by the major networks for copyright violations slightly before the launch, but a U.S. district judge in New York – which is currently Aereo’s sole market – shot down the networks’ effort to block the service from going forward.
In May, a judge partially shot down the networks’ complaint, dismissing an unfair competition claim because it was a matter of federal, not state, law.
Aereo has filed a countersuit against the broadcasters.
So what are your thoughts on the domain BarryDriller.com? Do you use any of these services from FilmOn.tv or Aereo?