October 06, 2004

`Sexychanel' subject of dispute

A Toronto escort who calls herself Chanelle is being sued by Chanel, the international perfume and fashion giant, for infringement of its trademarks. On her site sexychanelle.com (it used to be sexychanel.com, but she said she changed after being contacted by the company eight months ago - anyhow the earlier version of the website address still works), the defendant is leaning on a perfume bottle, which the lawsuit alleges infringes on its design trademark.
And how did she react to this lawsuit? She said: "To me, this is frivolous" (sic!!!).
Trademark lawyers will also like this new approach of the likelihood of confusion: "I'm not selling perfume. I can understand a company going after another company for selling handbags. But I'm not selling a product. It's me. I'm the product." (she offered to sell her domain name to Chanel for $250,000).
[Toronto Star]

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