Playboy appeals against Excite trademark ruling

Adult entertainment publisher, Playboy, is to appeal against a ruling that allows Net portal, Excite, to sell its trademarked name to other companies for advertising purposes.

In February, Playboy sued Excite over the issue of keyword selling, where search engine firms sell names to advertisers to return a specific banner ad when that name is queried. Playboy claimed the practice amounts to trademark infringement.

But a California District court ruled against Playboy last month, refusing to impose a preliminary injunction on Excite. Now Playboy is filing an appeal against that ruling.

Robert Carolina, a lawyer with UK firm Tarlo Lyons, said: "I'd be very surprised if Playboy is able to win this case, because this simply isn't what trademark law was meant to protect. Trademark law doesn't give you absolute power to keep anyone from using that name in all cases."