Porn streaming site Fyre TV is suing Amazon over name of its Fire TV set-top box, which recently launched in the US.
Fyre TV says that the name is too similar to its range of Fyre TV BoXXX products, which it has been selling since 2008.
Like search giant Amazon’s Fire TV box, the Fyre TV product plugged into your TV set and allowed subscribers to stream media from the web.
Unlike Amazon Fire TV, which lets you access things like Netflix and Prime Instant Video, the Fyre TV BoXXX brings titles including Anal Appetite and She Swallows Sperm to your living room.
As well as this, FyreTV’s wares are available through Apple TV and Roku apps and online, at FireTV.com (NSFW).
Parent company WREAL says its invested over $20 million in setting up the FyreTV service and over $1.3 million in advertising. In a legal complaint, WREAL also says that it was the first company to launch IPTV streaming in the US in 2007, and that it plans to expand its services beyond adult content.
Amazon launched its Fire TV box in the US on April 2 for $99 – no UK or European launch date for Fire TV has been announced yet. WREAL’s legal papers put the price of the Fyre TV BoXXX at $89.95, although you can’t seem to be able to buy one directly from the FyreTV site, on eBay or anywhere else online.
Amazon has yet to respond to the legal action. You can read WREAL’s complaint here.
The news is similar to the YouView vs YOUR VIEW story from late 2012. Business ISP Total Ltd runs an online billing service called YOUR VIEW, which it thought was ‘confusingly similar’ to YouView – a hybrid digital terrestrial and IPTV service.
While the High Court seemed to agree with Total Ltd, but YouView said that it had no intention of changing its name and that the matter would be settled in the courts.
Leave a Reply