Brabus Ventures v. Zablotskyy

Vlad Zablotskyy, a former real estate agent and operator of Go Beyond MLS, a blog that is focused on "using modern media and Internet as a marketing tool in the real estate industry," was sued by Brabus Ventures Corporation, which operates ePerks.com, a provider of sales leads for real estate agents. 

From August 2007 through February 2008, Zablotskyy wrote several blog posts criticizing ePerks.com and questioning whether ePerks was a scam. Following the posting of a number of negative comments about the company in response to Zablotskyy's posts, an ePerks attorney sent correspondence in February 2008 demanding that Zablotskyy remove all ePerks-related content from his site and cease writing about the company in the future.

Zablotskyy removed some of the material from his blog and created a post explaining why he did so.  As a result of that post, Brabus Ventures asserts in its complaint that Zablotskyy defamed the company and its products by stating that it had falsely accused Zablotskyy of being a child molester on Yahoo! Answers.  (Although the copy of the allegedly defamatory post that plaintiff attached to its complaint does not directly attribute the child molestation charge to Brabus Ventures or ePerks, another blogger has attempted to tie the Yahoo! Answers post to an IP address range associated with ePerks.)

On September 5, 2008, Zablotskyy filed a motion to quash the summons and complaint, arguing that the California court lacks personal jurisdiction over him because he is a resident of New Jersey.

On October 23, 2008, Plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed the action.