The US-based Playboy Enterprises International is taking three domestic companies and a Chinese individual to court for alleged trademark infringement and carrying out unfair competition.

Playboy claims the Hong Kong-based Pearlboy Group (whose Chinese name means "new playboy"), Pearlboy's Shenzhen branch company and the Yiwu Hiwell Clothing Factory in East China's Zhejiang Province have produced shirts with similar logos to Playboy.

The fourth defendant  Beijing-based retailer Chen Xiongjun - has been charged with selling many shirts with the trademark of Pearlboy and Hiwell at a department store in the capital city.

The plaintiff is asking for compensation of 550,000 yuan (US$68,000).

The Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court has accepted the case, it emerged yesterday.

The Playboy magazine was set up in 1953 in the United States. The magazine later developed into a cross-border media group and a world famous brand, sources with the US-based company said.

Trademarks of Playboy, including its logo, were registered in China in 1986. The US-based company entrusted a Hong Kong-based investment company to be general agent for its products in China.

The Pearlboy Group was registered and established in Hong Kong in 2003. The Shenzhen branch company was set up later the same year.

The Hong Kong-based Pearlboy Group permitted the Shenzhen-based company and the Yiwu Hiwell factory to use the trademarks of Pearlboy and Hiwell.

The US-based Playboy Enterprises International believe the two logos are similar to that of Playboy.

The plaintiff wants the court to order the four defendants to stop the alleged trademark infringement and stop acting in what it says is an uncompetitive manner.

A public apology has also been asked for.

US Playboy also wants the court to order Chen to stop selling similar products to those of Playboy and to order the Shenzhen-based defendant to change its Chinese name. "The new company name must not have the same or similar Chinese characters to Playboy," the indictment said.