Facts

Fifty Shades Ltd. and Universal City Studios LLC sued Smash Pictures LLC, LUV Moves, Daniel Quinn, Stuart Wall, James Lane aka Jim Powers, and Right Ascension Inc. dba Adult DVD Empire, in connection with E L James's novel series, the "Fifty Shades Trilogy."

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS:
Fifty Shades Ltd. held certain trademarks and copyrights in the Fifty Shade Trilogy, while Universal owned the exclusive rights to produce and distribute motion pictures based on the trilogy. Defendants produced, marketed, and distributed an adult film entitled: "Fifty Shades of Grey: A XXX Adaptation" and "This Isn't Fifty Shades of Grey XXX: This is a Parody". Plaintiffs claimed defendants took the dialogue, characters, and storyline from the Fifty Shades Trilogy, which constituted blatant copyright and trademark infringement and unfair competition in the marketing and sales of their infringing works.

Plaintiffs asserted causes of action for copyright infringement, false designation of origin and unfair competition, false advertising, dilution of famous mark, California statutory unfair competition, California statutory false advertising, and California common law unfair competition. Plaintiffs also sought an injunction against defendants.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS:
Defendants denied plaintiffs' allegations of copyright and trademark infringement. Defendants also contended that their conduct constituted fair use of any alleged copyrighted material and the purported trademarks. They also filed a counterclaim against plaintiffs, seeking a declaration of non-infringement and invalidity.

Result

The parties agreed to a settlement, whereby defendants agreed to be permanently enjoined from further infringement. As a result, defendants could no longer distribute, publish, market, sell, or advertise the XXX Adaptation.