Delaware Vice Chancellor Tamika Montgomery- Reeves has ruled that adult publishing company Penthouse must turn over a few adult domain names. The dispute arose over nine of 1,000 web addresses that were involved in the 2016 Penthouse assets by FriendFinder to a group headed by a Penthouse executive.
FriendFinder, an operator of dating and video websites acquired Penthouse, a global adult publishing empire that fell on hard times in the digital age.
“I find that the stock purchase agreement provides an unambiguous standard for the identification of the domain names, and the parties operated under this agreement. The buyer is entitled to domain names associated with, used in, or material to its business at the time of closing, and the buyer has not presented evidence to show that the disputed domains fall under this category,” Montgomery-Reeves wrote.
Penthouse claimed nine of the websites were wrongly transferred to FriendFinder. (See ruling below for names).
The ruling came after a three-day trial.
Lawyers were Robert W. Whetzel, Steven J. Fineman, Jason J. Rawnsley, and Selena E. Molina, of Richards, Layton and Finger, Wilmington (plaintiffs), and Stephen B. Brauerman and Sara E. Bussiere, Bayard, PA, Wimington (defendant).