Two Las Vegas-area adult film distributors have settled their trademark and copyright infringement lawsuit over the nationwide rights to distribute porn classics "Deep Throat" and "Debbie Does Dallas."
The suit dates to April 2009, when Arrow Productions Inc. of Las Vegas — which claimed to own the trademarks to the "Deep Throat" series of 15 films and to the stage name of the late porn star Linda Lovelace — filed suit against VCX Ltd. of North Las Vegas.
Arrow claimed VCX was marketing "Deep Throat" and sequels to the 1972 film on its website without authorization.
"Deep Throat," with box office sales reported at $600 million, was credited with broadening the appeal of pornography in the 1970s. The brand has been featured in an Arrow energy drink, T-shirts and posters, and in the "Deeper Throat" reality TV series on Showtime.
VCX, in responding to the suit, said it’s well established that the production of "Deep Throat" was financed by the mob and, with its murky origins, it was unclear who owned any copyrights or trademarks to the film. Versions of the movie without copyright notices have been shown, the company claimed.
David Sutton, president of VCX, said he started selling "Deep Throat" in 2008 because Arrow had refused his repeated requests that it stop distributing two other classic films VCX says it has the rights to: "Debbie Does Dallas" and "The Devil in Miss Jones."
In a settlement filed last week in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, VCX agreed not to manufacture or copy "Deep Throat" and Arrow agreed not to manufacture or copy "Debbie Does Dallas."
The allegations concerning the third film, "The Devil in Miss Jones," were dismissed without prejudice — meaning they can be filed again if there are further disputes between the parties.
The settlement said Deep Throat was financed by Louis "Butchie" Peraino, who died in 1999 and was described by federal investigators as an associate of the Colombo crime family. He had sold the copyrights to "Deep Throat" in 1996 to Arrow Productions, the suit said.
Over the years before that, when porn was shown in theaters, "While there may have been prints of `Deep Throat’ that were circulated without a copyright notice, those were amongst the many unauthorized prints that were made by the film lab without knowledge or authorization of Peraino or his corporation and sold illegally," the settlement said.
The settlement said Arrow owned a valid copyright on film and that "contrary to what VCX believed, it was not put into the public domain when certain prints were circulated without a copyright notice."