MENLO PARK, Calif. — A top legal analytics firm released a report yesterday confirming that two adult companies — Strike 3 Media and Malibu Holdings — are responsible for the bulk of all copyright litigation in federal courts between 2018 and 2020.
Legal analytics specialists Lex Machina and LexisNexis issued their comprehensive “Copyright and Trademark Litigation Report” surveying trends in federal district court between 2018 and 2020.
Strike 3 Media is the copyright holder for Vixen Media Group, whose brands include Vixen, Blacked and Tushy. Malibu Media is currently a beleaguered company behind the X-Art brand. Malibu pioneered the practice of filing numerous copyright infringement lawsuits in the hope of leading to settlements, the same strategy that is currently being pursued by Strike 3.
“Copyright filings peaked in 2015 and 2018 due to large numbers of file sharing cases,” Yahoo! Finance reported yesterday. “There was a drop-off in filings between 2019 and 2020, likely due to the pandemic, as well as a drop-off in case filings by the Liebowitz Law Firm.”
“The top two copyright plaintiffs, Strike 3 Holdings, LLC and Malibu Media, LLC are adult film companies accusing defendants of pirating their content,” the report continued. “The most active plaintiffs’ law firm in copyright cases was Fox Rothschild with 1,993 cases, due to a large number of file sharing cases filed on behalf of Strike 3 Holdings, LLC in 2018.”
“Copyright cases terminated with a settlement 82% of the time, one of the largest proportions of settlements in any Lex Machina practice area,” the report stated.
Lincoln Bandlaw, the Fox Rothschild partner who handled the Strike 3 cases, left to form his own eponymous boutique law firm during the period survey. Bandlaw continues representing Strike 3 in ongoing litigation against alleged copyright infringers.
Coming in at a distant third behind Strike 3 and Malibu Media is Joe Hand Productions, copyright holders for PPV boxing events.