Mattel has filed a lawsuit against a website for an adult entertainer called China Barbie.

The toy company has said that the website is trying to benefit from Mattel's success with the Barbie line of dolls. The lawsuit states that Mattel had registered its trademarks to protect the Barbie range and the $1.6 billion sales that it generates. The firm has sold more than a billion Barbie dolls worldwide and a typical American girls owns eight of them.

The lawsuit goes on to say that the website is registered to Global China Networks and is operated by Terri Gibson, a resident of Hollywood. According to the suit, the website used a domain name containing the word 'barbie' in a 'bad faith attempt to profit from Mattel's Barbie trademarks' and had damaged Mattel's good name.

The court has been asked to transfer the domain name registration to Mattel, to award damages of up to $100,000 and to order that any profits Global China Networks achieved be given to Mattel.

Advertisement