GENEVA — The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has ruled in favor of Penthouse World Media in a case against a website using an infringing domain.
Penthouse World Media, which owns and manages the long-established Penthouse brand, filed a complaint in February with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center about the domain penthousemagz.com.
According to the WIPO administrative panel’s ruling in the case, a Uganda-based registrant listed as “boys wow” used the “confusingly similar” domain name in bad faith, diverting users away from official Penthouse properties to a website “incorporating the Complainant’s logo and which appears to offer the Complainant’s products for sale.”
As a result, the panel ordered the fraudulent domain to be transferred to Penthouse World Media.
Industry attorney Corey D. Silverstein, who represented Penthouse World Media in the case, told XBIZ, “Penthouse remains one of the most historical and iconic brands in the history of the adult entertainment industry. The amount of time and resources that have been dedicated to building the Penthouse mark is unquantifiable. We are pleased by WIPO’s decision in this case and remain steadfast in our stance that intellectual property violations will not be tolerated. Penthouse will continue to aggressively pursue anyone that attempts to unlawfully abuse its brand.”
