CHICAGO, IL — No matter where they may hide, Playboy’s bunny fueled legal team will find trademark scofflaws eager to make a buck off of the famous Leporidaen icon of softcore erotic.Already showing three Chinese companies that it does not suffer what it considers to be trademark infringers lightly, Playboy Enterprises is beating the war drums in preparation for doing likewise with an Israeli clothing manufacturer.
According to Playboy, which filed suit in U.S. District Court in Chicago on Thursday, Play All Ltd. violated its licensing contract with the erotic lifestyle product empire and infringed its registered trademark by selling unilaterally selling bunny branded merchandise. The company further contends that Play All did not comply when asked to stop.
The lawsuit claims that “Play All’s continued illegal conduct therefore irreparably harms Playboy. It infringes and dilutes the value of Playboy’s trademarks, diminishes Playboy’s reputation and destroys the goodwill among consumers that Playboy has devoted years and millions of dollars to develop.” The suit further contends that the actions of Play All have cost Playboy $100,000 in damages and requests that Play All be forced to stop selling any items bearing the Playboy logo, destroy its remaining inventory, pay damages, account for the sales of all products — authorized as well as unauthorized — and surrender all profits made after the Chicago company terminated its licensing agreement.
Play All was authorized to manufacture and sell specific garments in Israel bearing the rabbit logo on April 1st, 2004, with November 1st as the day on which the items would become available for sale. The lawsuit states that in early 2005 the Israeli company sublicensed these duties to another company sans Playboy’s permission, had not had items available for legitimate sale on the agreed upon date, and did not provide Playboy with a required letter of credit.
