Ever since it launched its Fire TV set-top box, it was clear to some potential buyers – those who went to FireTV.com when looking for more information online about the product – that Amazon may have a porn problem. And it looks like the issue is more serious than expected for the retail giant.
TechCrunch reports that the company behind FyreTV, which is where FireTV.com redirects to and which happens to be a porn-on-demand streaming service, has sued Amazon.
FireTV dot com is a porn site. So there’s also that. pic.twitter.com/OzdSBgAfCZ
— Zach Epstein (@zacharye) April 2, 2014
Wreal has its own FyreTV box that only streams porn, and now believes that Amazon’s Fire TV will harm its business. “Amazon’s continued use of the ‘Fire TV’ moniker has caused, and will continue to cause, serious irreparable harm to Wreal’s established business, necessitating this action,” legal documents filed in a Florida court say.
The owners of Wreal say that Fire TV is “nothing more than a proprietary [set top box] that performs a substantially similar, if not identical, function to the proprietary STB marketed under the FyreTV trademark.” The obvious difference between them is that the latter only streams a certain kind of video content.
The company believes Amazon is infringing on its six-year old FyreTV and FyreTV.com trademarks and wants a jury trial, seeking damages for “for trademark infringement, false designation of origin, and unfair competition.” The company also wants to hand-over profits earned “by its illegal use of the Fire TV name.
