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THE HAGUE, Nov 22 (AFP) - A court in the Dutch city of Haarlem on Tuesday ruled that a local brothel could keep its name, despite a complaint from the company that owns the famous men's magazine Penthouse.
The Seksclub Penthouse brothel, which has been around for some 30 years, surfaced on the Internet a few months ago.
At the same time, the US company, General Media Communications Inc., which publishes Penthouse magazine has been looking for a network of leisure clubs in Europe.
According to the company, when using the words "penthouse" or "sex", Dutch search engines on the Internet refer people to the brothel's website. The magazine publisher claimed that was damaging to the notoriety and reputation of the Penthouse brand.
But the Dutch court said that since the company does not yet have clubs in Europe, there was no case of violating the law on brand names.
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Netherlands-justice-prostitution-media
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