This is weird. While BMW may not like their cars on a porn site, what right do they have to try to enforce this if the car is just part of a picture? I could see a possible argument if the picture was intentionally disparaging the logo, but I think that's not the case...
UITGEEST, The Netherlands, October 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The German car
manufacturer BMW AG has ordered adult search engine AskJolene.com to
immediately remove a number of results from its index and to blacklist the
providers of the documents but AskJolene says it will not yield to the claim.
AskJolene.com collects free erotic contents ("galleries") from the web,
and offers its users a dedicated full text search engine to locate galleries
of their liking. The results are presented as summaries that link to their
original gallery. The galleries are not hosted by AskJolene.com.
BMW AG claims that AskJolene.com infringes on its trademark rights.
AskJolene's results for the search query 'bmw' contain galleries in which the
word 'bmw' occurs. They also contain pornographic pictures depicting amongst
other things a BMW car.
A quote from the BMW AG cease and desist order:
"Cease and desist from, with immediate effect, but ultimately not later
than two days after the date of this letter, any more infringements of my
clients rights, on the Website and/or any other website(s) it exploits and/or
operates, and in particular:
(a) to stop the showing and/or supplying of Internet weblinks that
contain the word BMW; and
(b) to block access to Internet websites that contain the word BMW either
as metatag, in their title and/or as content" (End quote)
AskJolene.com will not yield to the claim. "As far as we know, we haven't
done anything wrong. Our search engine is a navigational aid. We provide a
way for our users to locate galleries as quick and convenient as possible. If
we give in to BMW's claim, other search engines will have a problem as well."
according to chief marketing Mike Schwalbach.
About AskJolene: AskJolene.com is a fully featured adult search engine
that delivers over two million of search results to users worldwide every
day. It has won international acclaim for its accuracy and its ability to
deliver a targeted audience to the websites of content providers.
UITGEEST, The Netherlands, October 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The German car
manufacturer BMW AG has ordered adult search engine AskJolene.com to
immediately remove a number of results from its index and to blacklist the
providers of the documents but AskJolene says it will not yield to the claim.
AskJolene.com collects free erotic contents ("galleries") from the web,
and offers its users a dedicated full text search engine to locate galleries
of their liking. The results are presented as summaries that link to their
original gallery. The galleries are not hosted by AskJolene.com.
BMW AG claims that AskJolene.com infringes on its trademark rights.
AskJolene's results for the search query 'bmw' contain galleries in which the
word 'bmw' occurs. They also contain pornographic pictures depicting amongst
other things a BMW car.
A quote from the BMW AG cease and desist order:
"Cease and desist from, with immediate effect, but ultimately not later
than two days after the date of this letter, any more infringements of my
clients rights, on the Website and/or any other website(s) it exploits and/or
operates, and in particular:
(a) to stop the showing and/or supplying of Internet weblinks that
contain the word BMW; and
(b) to block access to Internet websites that contain the word BMW either
as metatag, in their title and/or as content" (End quote)
AskJolene.com will not yield to the claim. "As far as we know, we haven't
done anything wrong. Our search engine is a navigational aid. We provide a
way for our users to locate galleries as quick and convenient as possible. If
we give in to BMW's claim, other search engines will have a problem as well."
according to chief marketing Mike Schwalbach.
About AskJolene: AskJolene.com is a fully featured adult search engine
that delivers over two million of search results to users worldwide every
day. It has won international acclaim for its accuracy and its ability to
deliver a targeted audience to the websites of content providers.
