March 19, 2013 | The Biz

Men.com owner, Manwin, wins extortion suit, denies piracy

Manwin, the porn company responsible for several adult sites including Men.com, won its lawsuit against Georgia resident Nicholas Bulgin this week. The company had accused Bulgin of cybersquatting and extortion.

Manwin had asked for $400,000 in damages, but the US District Judge George Wu said the company was only entitled to $100,000 in statutory damages. Bulgin has also been prohibited from creating domain names, Twitter accounts or Blogspot pages that use the company's trademarks.

The lawsuit was initially filed when Bulgin created a series of sites using Manwin names and properties, including Manwin.net, Manwin.co, ManwinSucks.com, Brazzers.us and Manwin.us. Negative commentary about the company was provided on these sites, including claims that Manwin peddled in child pornography. Bulgin also contacted Playboy, one of Manwin's biggest clients, and warned the company that dealing with Manwin would ruin Playboy's reputation.

Bulgin never contested the charges of cybersquatting, believing that Manwin simply did not have a case against him. He didn't even show up in court to defend himself. However, now that the court has released a finding against him, Bulgin has decided it is time to act. 

"I never intended to fight this lawsuit because I was confident that the court would have seen all the lies that [were] being thrown at them," Bulgin said. "I guess at the end of the day, those with a lot of money will always win if we don't fight back. I look forward to doing just that."

He seems to be somewhat naive about the workings of the American adversarial legal system. Yes, it helps to show up in court to argue your side of the case!  

In other Manwin-related news, reporter Charlie Gasparino, of Fox Business News, has been asking questions about  Manwin's many porn tube sites, which have been accused of supporting piracy in order to weaken its competition. Manwin has aggressively denied the charges.

Manwin Entitled to $100K Default Judgment, U.S. Judge Says [Xbiz]