Battle Over Playboy.london

By Nathaniel DeLucia

Playboy is one of the most recognizable trademarks in the world with registered trademarks in virtually every developed country.  It therefore comes as no surprise that Playboy Enterprises Inc. took issue when Michael Ross a property-developer in London, decided to register the domain name “Playboy.london.” Playboy won the initial lawsuit, filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). However, Mr. Ross filed a subsequent suit in the UK, which has yet to be decided, attempting to block implantation of the adverse WIPO ruling.

A current trend is to use common words as domain names, such as “.tech” or “.london.”  As Web domains begin to collide with Trademark law, lawsuits like the one here should be seen with increasing regularity.

For the complete story, including a brief summary of the WIPO ruling, visit Bloomberg News.

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