A website in Australia has come under fire because it has used Speedo swimming costumes using the company's trade mark on its pornographic website.
The company believed that the websites amounted to trademark infringement threatening the company's goodwill and reputation. This is fundamental to trade mark law and registration. If you are lucky enough to have reputation and goodwill then you will want to protect it with a registered trade mark and then vigorously defend that trade mark.
Mr Evans registered domain names containing the word "Speedo". Some of these sites featured images of men wearing Speedo briefs, as well as pornographic images, which Speedo claimed were offensive.
Mr Evans, known online as the "Bisexual Blogger" and "aussiespeedoguy", had set up paid subscription services for material on some of the sites and linked to other web pages.Federal Court Justice Geoffrey Flick ordered that Mr Evans shut down the offending websites and transfer the domain names to Speedo.
It also ordered that he refrain from registering any new domain name using the Speedo trademark, or operate any website that featured Speedo swimwear. He was also ordered to pay the swimwear company's legal costs. The court ordered that, if Mr Evans refused to shut down his websites, he would be liable for substantial damages to the company.
So beware! Don't use someone else's trade mark, especially if they have reputation and goodwill- they are most likely to win!
Signature: Jane can be contacted via email on jane@trademarkroom.com.
