Treasure Island Regains Control Of MitchMason After Fraud Allegations

Alright, hold on to your hats folks, this is a crazy one...

According to XBIZ (link below), Jeffrey Smith is a former marketing manager for Treasure Island Media, who earlier this year, registered the site MitchMason.com to himself. The site was previously under the umbrella of TIM, and "centered around the fictional Mitch Mason, a 'go-go dancer-turned-business school student-turned-club promoter-turned adult blogger' and relative of another Treasure Island Media brand and depiction, Matt Mason." 

In a suit filed by TIM, they alleged that Smith abruptly left the company after working as social media manager and blogging under the Mitch Mason name, and attempted to take the domain name with him when he left. 

Treasure Island Media was seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction over former marketing director Jeffrey Smith's use of the Mitch Mason trademark, a transfer of the MitchMason.com domain name and $630,000 in damages, as well as profits realized by Smith using MitchMason.com.

Treasure Island Media claimed Smith registered the company's domain name to himself earlier this year in a chance of opportunity when he worked at the company. The studio also contended that the former exec schematically removed other administrative users of online accounts and diverted company funds to purchase traffic for his own benefit.

Terms of the settlement were not released after the case was settled in September, but it's taken until now for TIM to regain the MitchMason.com domain, which is currently dormant. The list of charges against Smith are incredibly lengthy, so it would be interesting to see what the precise terms of the settlement were.

Treasure Island Media, which holds a trademark for Mitch Mason in relation to online adult services, made an array of charges against Smith, alleging cyberpiracy, breach of contract, trade secret appropriation, conversion, unjust enrichment, false designation of origin, unfair competition and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

We'll keep you up to date with the latest on this case as it rolls in.

Via XBIZ