softcore

do i need to do as thay say?

or tell them to gofuckyouself ?

some opinions please

thanks
softcore

RE: SEXYRUSSIANPLAYMATES.COM

Dear Sir or Madam:

It has been brought to our attention that you have registered the domain name SEXYRUSSIANPLAYMATES.COM that uses, without authorization, the trademark PLAYMATE as part of your domain name. Further, you have activated this domain name to use in connection with your adult content website at
<http://www.sexyrussianplaymates.com>.

Playboy Enterprises International, Inc. ("Playboy"), the publisher of Playboy magazine, is the registered owner of the famous PLAYMATE trademark. This trademark has come to be associated by the general public with Playboy. Your use of Playboy's trademark as part of your domain name and in connection with your adult website is likely to cause confusion and deception, leading members of the public and trade to believe that you are
either licensed, endorsed or sponsored in some manner by Playboy. Your use of Playboy's famous trademark also dilutes the distinctive quality of the PLAYMATE mark.

Further, we advise that the Trademark Cyberpiracy Prevention Act (a.k.a. the Consumer Protection Act) was passed to discourage the registration of domain names that are identical to, or confusingly similar to, trademarks or service names. This Act allows trademark owners like Playboy to more easily pursue legal action against anyone who uses their famous trademarks in a
domain name. If you are found to have registered this domain name in bad faith, you may be liable for up to $100,00 per domain name.

In an effort to avoid further action, we request that you comply with the
following:

1. Immediately and permanently deactivate, dismantle and transfer the domain name SEXYRUSSIANPLAYMATES.COM to Playboy.

2. Immediately and permanently cease any and all use of the trademark PLAYMATE and any other Playboy trademark, variation or similar mark in connection with your goods and services including, but not limited to, the use as a domain name or mark.

Please confirm, by reply to this email, that you agree to comply with the foregoing conditions by 5:00 p.m. (CST) on December 2, 2002. If we do not receive any indication of your intent to comply, we will take appropriate action.

We look forward to your immediate response and cooperation.
This letter is not intended to and shall not waive or prejudice any rights and remedies that Playboy may have at law, in equity or otherwise. Any and all such rights and remedies are hereby expressly reserved.

PLAYBOY ENTERPRISES INTERNATIONAL, INC.


Mary Ball
Manager, Internet Research & Infringement

cc: Ana Cashman, Esq.

JackFoley

Yeah, tell 'em to fuck off and let us know how it goes.

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jimmy3way

Dear Playboy - Eat a dick.

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pipp

Well the cool way would be to tell e'm to fuck off.
The smart way however will be to do as they say and take it up the ass.

If you chose the cool way. You will get it up the ass in the end. So just take it up there now and the pain will go away faster.

SpeakEasy

LOLOL....now thats funny..... But true

Scootermuze

Those folks go after any and everyone who uses any of their marks. Do as you will, but if you decide to use the domain, count on a battle.. and one that you will probably lose.. Best just to not use it.

Here's one example

TDF

tell them u declare jihad on playboy

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[The Leader]

Give the domain to them, and stop registering trademarks.

They'll take it all the way and win, don't be stupid.

Probono

I suggest a good lawyer and turning off all those damn popups. I am sorry I went to look at your site.

directfiesta

Comply!

I had a video that we called "Quebec Playmates", thinking that playmate is an usual term for friend, etc...

We were sued by Playboy, lost and had to recall all videos from the store, accounting for every cassette.

It is not worth the aggravation.

hyper

last i checked

sexyrussianplaymates isnt trademarked by playboy

tell them to eat a dick. let them wipo you..

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some_idiot

Playmate is pretty generic. Get a lawyer to write them
that back and see if they want to fight. You can always
back down at anytime before court.

Shoplifter

Yep I have a few domains that I got to promote AP. Now I am waiting for the C & D orders. A little guidance from those above would be good.

RobBuxxx

thats bullshit. a guys i know registered www.vividbucks.com and vivid video tried to pull that shit on him only offering him $15 for the domain name. he told them to go to hell or buy the domain from him for like $3000. they said no and just told him not to publish anyhting on it that had to do with vivid.

dont take any shit from them. they think that since they are so gad damn big they can push people like us around.

let us know wat happens

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Sly_RJ

Seems like Playmate is one of those corporate names that weaves itself into the common language. Like Kleenix, Jeep, Band-Aid, Kool-Aid, Sharpie, Coke...

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traffictrader

don't fuck with people that have more money than you.

the end.

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Sly_RJ

Pussy.

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FlyingIguana

ask yourself if its worth the legal battle. you could win, but without big money backing you up, you can almost forget about it.

maxcom

I think playmate was "created" by playboy... thus a valid trademark... but what do i know?

FlyingIguana

i'm not sure that it was created by playboy.

NetRodent

I don't think it was created by playboy. Where I grew up, the term playmates was commonly used to describe other kids that you played with.

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Rictor

If you are really in Russia, don't worry about it. If it goes to court, bribe the judge with a bottle of vodka. Works every time.

Gemini

Playmate WAS a word, in the sense of the kid down the street. But Playboy trademarked 'Playmate' in relation to the magazine.

You might as well have gone ahead and registered www.thehunsplaymates.com so you could REALLY start a squabble. Of which one of them gets your head on a pole, first. Might be interesting after they buried you, who would have won THAT fight.

You won't win this so why bother. Hand it over and learn something from it. There have wayyyy too many precedences set for you to even attempt to go to court. You'll pay thru the nose and still lose in the end.

andi_germany

Its simple: Playmate is a valid trademark of playboy and you are using it to describe sexy russian women. You will so loose any legal battle so why fight.
I am still surprised how many of you are bitching when someone uses a copyrighted picture but how lax the same people are on trademark infridgement.

.:Frog:.

Ignore it, is what I'd do. Make sure nothing is in your name and go to court defending yourself. They spend a few hundred grand and you spend nothing.

If you lose, file for bankrupt. You'd have no money for them to collect.

Lookup the rules for going bankrupt and see if this would put you in the clear. If you'd still have pay someday then hand them the domain.

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pentae

If you cant bringyourself to fight it, transfer the domain to someone who has the balls to.

hyper

is he running a magazine? no he's running a porn site


http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=playmate

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cyberpunk

Tell them no, but tell them your opene to offers

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Gemini

1. MOST all if not ALL court judgements are not allowed to be entered in bankruptcies... Oops!

2. Why not look up playboys trademark? Odds are it has been amended to include the net or it originally stated 'adult oriented' which would already include it.



3. Got to love all the advice from people that have never gotten a parking ticket (is that because they aren't old enough to drive or is it because they aren't allowed to have licenses due to deficit in the think tanks?) lmao

xxxdesign-net

Playmate is to Playboy what BigMac is to Macdonald!

If you describe women as Playmates, you imply that they are Playboy girls!!.... sorry....

X37375787

FlyingIguana

i suppose the trademark would apply to anything sexually related, such as internet porn.

but playmate is not completely owned by playboy.

Sly_RJ

Could someone please tell me how Playboy got away with registering two very common terms as trademarks? Both playboy and playmate have other meanings and I would assume they were being used long before Playboy ever came along.

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Sly_RJ

I wonder if I can register Semen or Cock as my trademark. That would be great.

Furthermore, Adult.com doesn't have "adult" as a trademark, but they might have "adult.com" as trademark. Maybe Playboy has "Playboy Playmate" and "Playmate of the Year" registered, but just playmate? Seems like there's a loophole somewhere...

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.:Frog:.

Gemini, If a company sues a person with no assets, that company is kinda out of luck. Many people win lawsuits but don't collect. This is a reality.

Sometimes your salary will be garnished (if you owe the government money) I'm not sure this applies to other lawsuits or not.

Maybe you should lookup facts and prove me wrong if you disagree. Insulting everyone who offered an opinion is just stupid.

BTW,
Tell me how a company collects money from someone with nothing to their name.

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Sambuka

Well Playboy SUED some guy in hongkong fooey, they sued someguy in Japan and somewhere in Europe for using playboy in there fucking metatags.

So yeah I suggest you take down your site and redirect it to your new site and tell your visitors to bookmark your new site and tell your playboy the site has been taken down and they should let you along for a month or so while your sites traffic get used to the new site and bookmark.

Sammy

Phoenix

sell it to them...make up some great forecast about future or present traffic or revenue...settle at a reasonable price...if they refuse and take you to court...

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xanx

The truth is just like the saying says, "You can't get blood from a turnip no matter how hard you try" So to me it boils down to how much that domain is worth to you. If it's worth all the problems it's going to bring then stick with it and fight. If you can just register another name and be just a successfully I would do that. You just have to learn to pick your battles... Either way don't take whoevers advice and back down because they have more money than you. That's stupid...

I have a lawsuit pending from Hi-Rise Entertainment, I think they come around here and post too. I had some asshat upload some pictures to my voting script (am i hot or not type thing). Well it seems Hi-Rise owned them. They sent me a C&D so I took them down. I asked them if they could send me something showing me they owned them because they were really shitty pics, like taken with a Polaroid or something. This request came after they were already deleted and I figured they would just send me a link to the license. They never did, not that I care the pics were deleted anyway. So a few days later I get a call from there atty. saying they are willing to settle for $2,500 That got a big hell no, so now were off to court. It's not so much the 2,500 as it is the fact that they feel because they have more money than I do (or i'm guessing they do) that I should just do what they say and pay up. Well fuck that.

Voodoo

Make them pay for the transfer of the domain name, then go register SEXYRUSSIANPLAYAMATES.COM the $ you get from the transfer.

problem solved

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UnseenWorld

Playboy has very deep pockets, lawyers on retainer (or on staff) and they have been using the term "playmate" in a sexual context for so long that I think you'd be seriously crazy to want to fight them.

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Carrie

Have there ever been girls of Russian descent who were Playmates?
If so, then putting pictures of those girls on the site - could you not tell a judge that these are indeed sexy women, who are Russian, and who have been Playmates - and there's no law against telling the truth?

I have no idea. If you didn't have the word sexy in the domain, I'd say throw up a kid's site of Russian kids playing in the streets (the age-old definition of "playmates") and tell Playboy GFY. But since that's neither here nor there...

Nysus

Okay- I think the only reason they can go after you is because it is an adult site. Turn it into a children's site with the topic of "What Russian Playmates do for fun!" ... describe a bunch of Russian games etc... and then reply to them... 'playmate' as they said in the email themselves, general public term, eg: a mom says to another mom "they are play-mates" ... Get rid of the competitive nature of the website, and they can't take the domain, or sue you.. though the domain would probably be useless to you... but it'd be funny to see what Playboy's reaction would be.. Anyone have any comments, or want to tell me what I said is flawed?

Cheers,
Matt

FlyingIguana

they couldn't sue you for that and win. that would mean a company can 'own' words in the dictionary. which is complete bs.

pornjudge

Why is AOLSUCKS.COM still up & running? Don't AOL own trademark AOL?

letshunt

I would think of it in terms of this:

1. Playboy has a floor of attorneys sitting around looking for shit to do. They are well versed in patent law as that is probably what they spend most of their time on. (or throwing darts at a picture of Larry Flynt)

2. You have a floor of.. err. ummm, well....you don't have a floor of anything.

3. They are a large company that will spend bucks, that they have, to protect their marks.

4. You are a ....err...ummm....you are not a large company.

5. They will drag you into an Administrative Court where the procedures and rulings are as draconian as you have ever experienced. It is not like civil or criminal court.

6. Think $5000 retainer for you to retain counsel.

7. Now consider the Alamo. It didn't go well for those fella's.

8. You won't do any better than Davey Crocket did.

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Juge

I would like to see the end of that.

Serious, do as they say. They even try and sue their own playmates for using the word playmate in the meta tags of their own personal site, and they ARE playmates. So, they won the case. You have no right to use it. You'll lose if you fight it.

AM Jeff

I would get ahold of Mike Gatefold.
He battled with Playboy a few years back with Playboys Collectors Gallery.


It cost him a ton of money and headaches to defend himself.

My question to you is..is it worth fighting a long, expensive legal battle over?

softcore

Thanks for all the help I will have to sleep on it, I checked with
my lawyers and they both said the same thing and it is there tm
and I?m to close to their biz ?Adult?, if I was a ?playmates palm trees service? maybe have a chance and they have deeper pockets them us, the site is nothing to me and I have a lot for them to get.

Thanks all it was nice to hear those responses

softcore

KRL

OK, here's the technique I've used before. I'm not saying its foolproof or guaranteed, but I had this same type of problem over a domain name and was able to successfully keep it despite the legal threats coming from this company that said they owned the trademark to one of the words in this 2 word domain I had. Much like your use of the word playmate.

What I did, in anticipation of a potential problem was to clearly keep the context and use consistent throughout the site in a way that there was a distinguished difference. It is very important for this to legally work to be sure there isn't one use throughout that is different and would be confusing by precise matchup.

So for example in your case with this technique, you would need to use it like "Sexy Russianplay Mates" and clearly break it apart. No where on your site could you use the Playmates under this technique. Every instance needs to have it in consistent distinguishable useage. You might also want to interject a lot of emphasis on "Mates" throughout.

When I did this it drove the other company's attorney nuts cause he knew I had a point that at least that could raise doubt in a juries mind as to intent and that was enough to make them stop their pursuit of my use of this word.

Again, this isn't a guaranteed technique, but it worked for me.

You have to understand one point also, under trademark law if a company does not vigorously defend its trademark it can lose the rights to ever protecting it, so these companies like Playboy have to keep at it even if they don't really sue anyone.

Sly_RJ

So then why are all the aolsucks type sites still allowed? From the AOL perspective I can see allowing them to stay online, but shouldn't they be protecting their trademark?

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