Mass-copyright litigation, in which hundreds or thousands of defendants are accused of illegally downloading a piece of media, is today mostly limited to pornography. Voltage Pictures' lawsuits are an exception. Since February, the company has sued 615 still-anonymous defendants in 17 separate lawsuits, saying the defendants illegally shared the hit movie it produced last year, Dallas Buyers Club, using the BitTorrent protocol.

Voltage has also filed two cases in Oregon courts making a more surprising claim with regard to the downloads: that the company's rights were infringed under Oregon state trademark law.

Seattle lawyer Benjamin Justus is representing two defendants in the suits, who have received notices from their ISPs that their IP addresses have been identified in litigation.

There's a history of heavy copyright enforcers, sometimes derided as "copyright trolls," making non-copyright claims to get into state court, but Voltage's newest strategy is a novel one. Justus, who also writes a blog called Troll Defense, says he's never seen a state trademark claim used in an online file-sharing case. Oregon's trademark law is geared toward those who distribute fakes and counterfeits, not Internet copying.

"It's a little bit puzzling to me, because they can't get damages against these people under Oregon trademark law," said Justus in an interview with Ars. "They'd have to prove they applied a counterfeit mark to a product. I have looked at the law, and this is not a slam-dunk case. My guess is that the lawyer for Voltage is trying to find a more convenient and friendly court to get his subpoenas out."

In other words, Voltage is seeking a venue that will allow it to quickly gain access to subscriber information. Then it can contact the subscribers and perhaps push for a settlement.

Prenda Law, a serial filer of copyright lawsuits that was sanctioned by multiple judges last year, began to mix things up in late 2012 by filing oddly worded claims over computer hacking, which went to state court rather than federal court. Defense lawyers combatting those claims suspected Prenda of seeking an easier path to getting users' contact information, leading to more threats and faster settlements.

One of Voltage's two Oregon lawsuits begins by noting that the Voltage Pictures' mark "is valuable, well known and famous as it is associated with numerous award winning motion pictures in addition to Dallas Buyers Club." It goes on to explain that making such movies involves "countless expenses and labors... including writers, staff persons, construction workers and others." However, there's a "nominal cost on a per-viewing experience," and that leads to a "reality disconnect." Voltage lawyer Carl Crowell explains:

Added to this is that most people seen related to the end product, movie stars, directors and other persons of note, are generally perceived as highly compensated. This leads to the common misunderstanding that people involved in motion pictures are already wealthy... A reality disconnect often builds in the minds of much of the public, namely that those associated with a motion picture do not need any more money. When this reality disconnect meets with the ready availability of pirated copies of motion pictures and the ease with which they can be pirated and downloaded at an almost anonymous level, many people feel justified in their pirating or theft of motion pictures.

The complaint goes on to quote Oregon legislators and US Senator Carl Levin talking about the importance of intellectual property.

The lawsuit names 50 IP addresses in the area around Salem, Oregon. It asks for an injunction "enjoining each defendant from infringing plaintiff's rights in plaintiff's mark" and directing defendants to "destroy all unauthorized copies of plaintiff's motion pictures." It also asks for attorneys' fees.

Voltage has also filed two federal lawsuits in Oregon against individual John Doe defendants. Those are standard copyright lawsuits, but they include a state trademark claim as well.

Crowell wasn't available to discuss the cases before publication. Voltage Pictures hasn't responded to an interview request about its litigation.

Justus said that his impression from speaking to lawyers who work with Voltage is that its widespread lawsuits are not just about the money.

"They've been very aggressive," he said. "My impression is that it's personal for the higher-ups there. Maybe they want to just make a statement."