Bob Young, Lulu Settle Lawsuit against Hollywood’s Hulu – and He’s Relieved

RALEIGH – Bob Young, founder and chief executive officer of Lulu, has dropped his trademark infringement lawsuit against Hulu, the Fox- and NBC-backed online video Web site.

“The good news is that the issue went away,” said Young, who stopped by WRAL-TV’s studios on Thursday to tape a series of interviews with WRAL Local Tech Wire. “They have narrowed their focus, and we are not going to run into each other.”

Lulu filed suit against Hulu last fall after the Hollywood venture disclosed its name. Young felt that Hulu would create confusion in the marketplace since it is so similar to Hulu. The case immediately ran into a setback when a judge threw out the suit, saying no damage had yet occurred.

Not to be deterred, Young vowed to fight on.

However, the two ventures recently came to an understanding about where each was headed and decided to drop the matter.

“The case was voluntarily dismissed,” a spokesperson for Hulu told LTW. “There were no monetary of other conditions to the resolution.”

The site, developed by News Corp. and NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co., offers free viewing of full-length films and TV episodes, supported by advertising.

Young said he was convinced that Hulu would not become a competitor in the self-publishing space where Lulu has already established an international presence. Lulu works with authors, musicians and artists to publish their works ranging from books to CDs. The company is based in Morrisville.

“They are going to concentrate on first-run TV programs,” Young said. “They gave us some assurances that they would not be working with self-generated content.”

Young said the lawsuit was an attempt by Lulu to “avoid confusion in the marketplace. Now, he said, “We feel we can all get along.”

Young, a co-founder and former chairman and CEO of Linux software developer Red Hat, opened the lawsuit proceedings with angry words. Hulu means “cease” and “desist” in Swahili, and Young picked up on those words, alleging trademark infringement, unfair and deceptive trade practices and federal cyperpiracy.

The days of heated rhetoric have passed, however. And as far as Young is concerned, he said he does not want to get involved in a lawsuit of any kind again.

“What was that Shakespeare line about kill all the lawyers,” he asked rhetorically.