Standard.co.uk just published a blog post entitled “Property boss at war with Playboy over Dot London domain name”
Michael Ross, director of CNM estates, registered the domain name Playboy.London after the publishing company failed to register the domain name in the Sunrise period that was opened to trademark holders
According to Mr. Ross, he received a strongly worded letter from its Los Angeles lawyers demanding he transfers the domain immediately.
However Mr Ross, “who once visited the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, plans to fight the demands.”
The deadline to give up the address in the C & D letter has now passed, and Mr Ross told the Standard his plan was “to argue that I am a London-based playboy with every right to use the domain”.
“They say that I am ‘diluting the value of their brand’. That is personally insulting — I am improving it.
“Playboy is a word in the dictionary. If it was protected I would not have been able to register it.”
“I am not going to go off and pretend I am Hugh Hefner or own the Playboy Club. I just like the sound of it and was amazed when I got it allocated to me. I thought anything that was properly corporately branded would be protected.”
Mr Ross said he now wants “to keep the Playboy domain for his unborn child to use when they turn 18.”
He said: “My wife is pregnant and I am hoping for a boy. If he is anything like I was in 18 years’ time I am keeping the domain for him so he can be London’s newest playboy.”
