TAMPA — Anyone unfamiliar with the intricacies of the interactive internet, especially those associated with its gaming communities, will likely laugh and roll their eyes when they hear that the self-described “Hugh Hefner of the digital millennium” is suing a gaming avatar for stealing his virtual sex machine design — but a federal court date means that it’s serious business. According to TBO.com, Second Life designer Kevin Alderman is taking his virtual world grievances into the “real” world with a lawsuit determined to protect a trademarked virtual sex machine that is making a thief money thanks to unauthorized sales.

Although Alderman also creates mainstream virtual realities, including a reproduction of Amsterdam, which brought in a tidy $50,000 thanks to eBay’s money exchange options, his steady money maker is the Sex Gens online avatar manipulator.

With enough $40 sales of the cuddling, kissing, sexual position sex toy, Alderman has been able to sell his plumbing contractor business and hire a dozen employees who help him keep the love and sex starved Second Life avatars feeling secure and satisfied. With 1,000 of the vaporware products being sold per year within the 7 million resident online community, finding out that someone known only as Volkov Catteneo was passing off replicas as his or her own work gave Alderman a real world pain.

This week, Eros, Alderman’s company, filed suit in U.S. District Court claiming trademark violation and demanding that Second Life and PayPal be forced to reveal the identify of the culprit.

While some consider Alderman’s work to be pornography, the man himself insists that he’s “an entrepreneur,” “a toy maker,” and “an erotic Gipetto” just giving the people what they want. What they want includes kinky furniture and implements, genitals, and an assortment of fun things to use on them.

Known as Stroker Serpentine online, he insists that his work is often emulated without credit. “A lot of people copy me, copy my work, copy my ideas,” he explained to the Tampa, FL press. “Because it’s an anonymous platform where you’re an avatar cartoon character, as opposed to a real-life person, people think they can operate with impunity.”

Neither Alderman nor Stroker Serpentine plan to let that fiction linger long in the minds of those keen to profit from his work, however. “We’re doing the best we can to protect our product, our income, our intellectual property. We’re hoping that this is going to send a message to quote/unquote hackers and anti-establishment types that just because it’s a virtual platform, we’re not going to sit idly by and let you rip us off.”

Some have suggested that Alderman take the evil-doer to virtual court, perhaps within the Second Life world, but he and his attorney, Frank Taney – also a Second Life gamer — don’t think that’s a very good idea. While they might manage to get the user banned from the game, that won’t bring back the profit lost.

The case may very well be the first of its kind and will likely be watched carefully by other virtual product creators whose work is or can be easily replicated and sold without proper permission or compensation.