Playboy v. Asiafocus

Citation: Playboy Enters., Inc. v. Asiafocus Int’l, Inc., 1998 WL 724000 (E.D. Va. Apr. 10, 1998).

Factual Background
Plaintiff is the owner of the U.S. registered trademarks “Playboy” and “Playmate.” The defendant provided adult nude photos on web pages located at “asian-playmates.com” and “playmates-asian.com.” The “Playboy” and “Playmate” trademarks were embedded in the defendant’s metatags, such that someone doing a search for plaintiff’s website “Playboy.com” would produce a search results list containing “asian-playmates.com”.

Trial Court Decision
The court enjoined the defendant’s use of the marks “Playboy” and “Playmate” in its domain name and metatags of the defendant’s website.