A federal judge has ruled that Playboy Enterprises may not prevent a former centerfold model from using the company's famous trademarks on an adult Website. Terri Welles, December 1980's Playmate of the Month and 1981's Playmate of the Year, is now an Internet entrepreneur and has the legal right to use the Playboy trademarks on her Website.\n Playboy had objected to Welles' use of the company's trademarks in her meta tags, suggesting that they unfairly lured web surfers who had typed the words "Playboy" or "Playmate" into a search engine and were thus evidently looking to visit Playboy's own site.\n The U.S. District judge concluded that the use of the trademarks is legal because the words in question "reasonably describe a major achievement of the model's career." The judge also added that Welles' "fair use" of the trademarks was not likely to generate any confusion about Playboy's involvement in the site.\n The judge cited a 1924 opinion of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. which stated that when a trademark "is used in a way that does not deceive the public, we see no such sanctity in the word as to prevent its being used to tell the truth. It is not taboo."
All models were at least 18 years old at the time of their performance. 18 U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement.
