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NEW YORK - Mattel has sued a small company for using the toymaker's famed "Barbie" trademark as part of the name for a pornographic web site it owned.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, said the website www.chinabarbie.com had used the Barbie trademark to capture the positive image Mattel had created through its "Barbie" products.
The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, said the company, Global China Networks LLC, was based in Florida with a postal address in New York and had sold memberships to the site to customers around the world.
Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler in 1959 created the Barbie doll after noticing her daughter preferred playing with paper cut-outs of adult female fashion dolls, the lawsuit said.
American girls aged between 3 and 11 own an average of eight Barbie dolls each, the lawsuit said.
- REUTERS
