“Second Life” trademark infringement lawsuit ends with First Life Default Judgment

VirtuallyBlind.com (link here) reported on the default judgment entered in favor of Eros, LLC against defendant Robert Leatherwood. See Eros, LLC v. Robert Leatherwood and John Does 1-10, Case No. 8:2007cv01158 (M.D. Fla.). A copy of the default judgment can be downloaded here (courtesy of VirtuallyBlind.com).

A November 15th story by “Second Life” Reuters (link here) provides a good overview of the events surrounding the case and leading up to the default judgment. In July, Eros filed suit against then unknown Leatherwood for selling illegal copies of Eros’ product, the SexGen bed (a piece of furniture with special embedded animations that enable Second Life players to create an adult film with their avatars). Eros also has a pending Section 1(a) trademark application for the mark SEXGEN (the current description of “Scripted animation system utilizing a defined menu to actuate avatars within a virtual world accessed through a 3-dimensional virtual platform” has been rejected as vague).

A four month investigation of the IP addresses of the avatar accused of the trademark infringement (named Volkov Catteneo) uncovered Robert Leatherwood. Leatherwood denied being Catteneo, but nonetheless failed to respond to Eros’ lawsuit. Eros filed its motion for default judgment soonafter.

With the default judgment entered, Eros can now seek damages against Leatherwood. Of course, collecting such a judgment may be difficult, given that Leatherwood is apparently an unemployed high-school dropout living with his family.