Playboy must change a forthcoming cover featuring former World Wrestling Federation champion Sable, a federal judge has ruled, saying the cover of the company's Wrestling Superstar feature infringed on the WWF's trademark.
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin has a telephone conference set for Thursday looking to have both sides work out how to change the cover, Reuters says. About 500,000 covers have been printed already for the issue scheduled to appear in mid-October, according to Playboy.
The issue, says Reuters, was whether Playboy could use Sable's name, since the WWF trademarked the character portrayed by Rena Mero. Mero quit and sued the WWF for sexual harassment in June, saying she was ordered to show her breasts during a match. Reuters says the suit was settled but terms were undisclosed.
The WWF sued Monday, charging Playboy with planning to call Mero Sable in forthcoming photographs against its trademark rights. The federation suit alleged that no only did the magazine use objectionable wording on the cover ("The Woman You Loved as Sable in the Raw"), but the wording was too similar to the federation's Monday night wrestling television program, Raw.
Mero had posed for Playboy in April while still working for the WWF - but Reuters says the federation didn't object to that. A WWF attorney told Scheindlin the federation turned Sable into an uncommon name especially in the context of professional wrestling. Playboy's attorney argued the question was free speech.
