NEW YORK, NY — Accused for decades of objectifying women and promoting an impossible beauty standard, Barbie doll maker Mattel Inc. has no tolerance for adult websites that include the name of its career-hopping, boyfriend shopping trademark protected fashion doll in their Uniform Resource Locators.The latest website in the crosshairs of Mattel’s legal eagles is ChinaBarbie.com, owned by Global China Networks LLC, a company organized in Florida, believed to be operated by Terri Gibson, and possessing a New York, NY post office box. The latter likely came in handy when the El Segundo, CA toy giant sued the company in federal court in Manhattan this past Tuesday, especially since its supposedly principal Hollywood, FL address is filed as “inactive” on the state’s Division of Corporations website.
According to the entirely unamused Mattel, ChinaBarbie.com is a pornographic website which sold subscriptions internationally, used the trademarked Barbie name in order to leverage the doll’s 48 years of success, and has tarnished Mattel’s reputation by association.
For $19.95, a site member can get to know China Barbie, the “cordial young lady” who is said to have worked for New York’s leading investment banking and advertising firms before sharing her beautiful nude body with the world’s web denizens. Her filmography is listed as including Me Luv You Long Time, Ethnic Cheerleaders 8, and Passport to Paradise.
Previous websites that have met Mattel in a court of federal law include the now-defunct BarbiesPlaypen.com, which was sued in 1999 and eventually became the property of Mattel as part of a permanent injunction against the site owner.
Created by Ruth Handler in 1959, the Barbie doll was designed for girls – such as Handler’s daughter – who preferred to play with adult fashion dolls instead of baby dolls. According to Reuters, the average Barbie doll owner between the age of 3 and 11 has eight dolls at her beck and call. The doll currently brings home $1.6 billion in sales, with more than a billion dolls sold worldwide.
Mattel is seeking possession of the domain name, as much as $100,000 in damages, and any profits earned by Global China Networks, according to Associated Press reports.
