September 25, 2011 | Online

Speedo looks to shut down Speedo lover site

A young Australian man with a thing for Speedos is facing a lawsuit for breaching the company's copyright.

Dave Evans runs a series of sites, including the blog AussieSpeedoGuy.net. It showcases pics of hot men in sexy bathing suits. He also runs a pay site called SwimmerBoyz.com, with the tag line "hot young guys in and out of their speedos."

Speedo claimed that Evans was not only violating its copyright on the term Speedo, but also threatening the good name the brand has taken years to establish. The addition of nude men on the sites further frustrated the company; it called the images "offensive." 

Evans has not spoken to media about the situation, but did post the following on his blog: "My argument is that the term ‘speedo’ is generic.  Speedo Sex for example – most of my speedo sex stories involve AussieBum or ADIDAS clothing.  I’m pretty sure ‘speedo’ is now a culturally generic term."

As examples, he pointed to other trademarks that he said have become generic, like Aspirin, Escalator and Dry Ice.

His court date is set for Monday, but he said he will not be going. Without the appropriate funds for a corporate lawyer "to argue abstract things like this," he doesn't see the point.

"I don’t have any money or property or anything else apart from a beat up old car for them to take even if they win and finally…. I have a nice suit but I don’t own a tie, and I’d feel underdressed [sic] if I went before a Federal Court Judge without a tie."

Evans arguments likely won't fly in a court of law (especially since there will be no on to argue them) and the company can then force him to shut down any website domains with the word "speedo" in them. Maybe they should be called speedon'ts?

‘Speedo fetish’ man sued over websites [Pink News]

Interviews [AussieSpeedoGuy.net]