An Australian man has found himself unsurprisingly at odds with global swimwear giant Speedo after he registered domain names relating to the Speedo brand and creating sites that are described as “salacious swimwear websites” by The Age newspaper.The case has made the Federal Court in Australia where lawyers acting for the Netherlands and British registered SPEEDO Holdings BV and SPEEDO International Ltd described how they “had taken to serve legal demands on ‘aussiespeedoguy’ Dave Evans, who describes himself as a ‘bisexual blogger’ according to the news report.The news report outlines that “what was at stake, according to their legal documents, is the ‘substantial and valuable reputation and goodwill associated with the name and trademark SPEEDO’.””Evans had, under aliases, registered domain names containing the word ‘Speedo’. Some featured ‘images of persons wearing swimwear briefs and related offensive images’. Others featured nudity, offensive images and graphic sexual content. There was a commercial aspect, with some sites featuring subscription services and merchandising, and hyperlinks to other sites, it stated.”The company wants the court to restrain Mr Evans, or anyone acting on his behalf, from registering domain names that contain the word Speedo, and that he transfer his existing domains to the company. It is also seeking an unspecified amount of damages under both consumer law dealing with misleading and deceptive conduct, and the Trade Marks Act.”To read the report in The Age in full, see:
http://www.theage.com.au/business/speedo-in-fight-with-bisexual-blogger-20110921-1klbp.html