Porn Valley- Serenity Swallows, who operates the website www.serenityswallows.com, was on the phone with Wankus Wednesday night. Swallows told the KSEX audience she was informed she could no longer use the name Serenity.
Someone’s yelling trademark, but, at the outset, it should be noted that Serenity Swallows resembles Serenity as much as Madonna resembles Mary the Mother of God.
Before she got on the phone, Wankus mentioned that Serenity Swallows got a call from Serenity’s husband Steve Lane.
“I know Steve. Steve’s a nice guy,” said Wankus. “But he gets a little hot under the collar sometimes about certain things. I guess the story’s something to the effect that Serenity’s name is trademarked, so, therefore, he’s telling this Serenity Swallows girl she has to change her name or something to that effect.”
Wankus also got porn’s resident attorney/performer, Don Hollywood, on a conference call.
Serenity Swallows explained that she runs her little website and is really happy with it. But she got an e-mail Wednesday morning telling her that she could not use the name Serenity.
“I contacted this fellow- Steve Lane- and he’s a really nice guy,” she said. “But he says I cannot use Serenity at all and my name is Serenity Swallows. I understand that she [Serenity] has a trademark that is Serenity only. What can I do about this?”
Upon hearing this, Hollywood, snapping his suspenders and doing his best Algonquin J. Calhoun, said without hearing more specifics he could only offer a generalized legal opinion.
“Take it for what it’s worth, in other words it’s free,” Hollywood told Swallows. Noting that he got a heads-up earlier about the situation, Hollywood went on the Internet. Whereupon, Hollywood typed in serenity.com and got a website for adult diapers.
“Apparently it’s owned by the good folks that bring you Tampax or Cotex or one of those products,” Hollywood said.
“Here is the deal with trademarks and copyrights,” Hollywood continued. “You can trademark and copyright things- and this is just a general legal principle- as long as you’re not attempting to pass yourself off as Serenity, the former Wicked contract girl and well known adult performer; and so long as people in the general public- the general public being friends of adult entertainment- are not perceiving that Serenity Swallows.com has anything to do with Steve Lane’s wife Serenity. Then you are not infringing on her trademark.”
According to Hollywood, if you’re able to take a name like Serenity and trademark it, “Then Steve Lane could send the same letter to the people who are making adult hygiene products and say you can’t use the name Serenity- I have a trademark.” [Mattel has long gone after porn stars or anyone in the limelight for using the name Barbie.]
Hollywood said that a trademarked or copyrighted name only has very limited purposes. For his part, Wankus said he was surprised Lane was able to trademark the name Serenity.
“When we trademarked the name Tyler Faith we couldn’t trademark Tyler- they wouldn’t let us,” said Wankus. “Because Tyler is so generic and common.” Hollywood said it’s even more difficult when it comes to the Internet.
“The Internet is international, it’s not just national,” Hollywood pointed out. “A copyright would only cover the United States.” Hollywood pointed to the example of the name Stone and anyone using the name stone.com could then run the risk of legal action by Evan Stone or Lee Stone, Kyle Stone or any of the Stone brothers.
“Steve Lane’s a very nice guy but I don’t think he’s got a leg to stand on on that one, there,” Wankus mused. “If she was just going out as Serenity, he’s got something to say. Serenity Swallows is a whole different thing.”