'Face Book of Sex' Has Been Veiled

SAN FRANCISCO—Following a trademark infringement and dilution lawsuit filed April 13 by Facebook against Friendfinder Networks and others over the continuing operation of www.facebookofsex.com and other similarly named websites, the allegedly infringing original site has been taken offline. The adult social network now resolves to a "deactivated" page containing a message that reads, "This website is no longer in use. If you are an existing member, you may log-in here." Log-in windows are situated below the message. As AVN has reported, the Facebook complaint claims the "Defendants’ mark, websites and affiliate program are a deliberate and blatant attempt to imitate and trade upon the success of the Facebook brand. Association with Defendants’ pornographic websites tarnishes Facebook’s reputation and abuses the trust of Facebook users. Accordingly, Facebook brings this suit to put a stop to Defendants’ unlawful scheme." Attorneys for the mainstream social network are seeking monetary damages plus $100,000 per infringing domain, and have asked the court "to order the Registrar of the facebookofsex.com domain name and Face Book of Sex affiliate domains to cancel or transfer the domains to Facebook." Friendfinder Networks filed papers April 27 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announcing its intention to seek an initial public offering (IPO) of shares of common stock worth between $50-$57 million. As reported Wednesday, "Bloomberg anticipates May 11 as the date that shares will price."