MIAMI, FL – Playboy Enterprises International Inc. has filed suit against two South Beach nightclubs, claiming that the clubs used copyrighted Playboy pictorials without obtaining permission or licensing the images for use in the clubs’ promotional materials.The clubs, Mansion and Prive are operated by The Opium Group; all three entities are named as defendants in the lawsuit filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Miami.

Neither Playboy nor The Opium Group has commented publicly on the lawsuit as yet, but in court documents, Playboy states that the company had previously declined a request from Mansion to use images from a photo-spread featuring actress Bai Ling to promote a May 21 event at the club.

However, after Playboy declined Mansion’s request, three photographs from Ling’s June 2005 pictorial were reproduced without permission, were altered so as to include Mansion’s logo, and were then utilized on flyers advertising the event, according to Playboy’s lawsuit.

A Miami Beach company that produced the club’s promotional materials issued an apology to Playboy and said that the images would no longer be used. According to the lawsuit, however, in June, photos of Nicole Lenz and Colleen Shannon were similarly reproduced and altered without Playboy’s permission and used to promote both Mansion and Prive.

Playboy asserts that the unauthorized use of the images was intended to deceive club patrons into thinking Playboy had sponsored or was affiliated with the events at the clubs.

Playboy is seeking statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each infringement on their copyrighted property, awards of three times the profits resulting from each unauthorized reproduction of their images, plus reimbursement for attorney’s fees and other legal costs.