Bondage Radio

CALGARY – In the battle between a designer of bondage garb and toy giant Mattel over the name Barbie, it appears the perky plastic blonde doll is about to win.

Barbie Anderson-Whalley – who is being sued for trademark infringement by the toy corporation that manufactures Barbie dolls – says she’s probably going to back down from her fight due to mounting legal bills.

“I can’t afford to play the game,” she said Wednesday, just a few days after receiving a bill from her U.S.-based lawyer for $8,300 US.

“I feel like I’ve lost, big time.”

At the heart of the legal suit is Anderson-Whalley’s website, Barbiesshop.com, which shares its name with her clothing and accessories store in the city’s southwest.

The site went online more than four years ago, but it wasn’t until July that Mattel sent Anderson-Whalley a summons, saying she was “cybersquatting” and diluting the company’s trademark.

Anderson-Whalley has gone by the name Barbie since she was a child and has been leather, gothic and alternative clothing and lingerie under that moniker for 14 years.

Initially, her lawyer in the U.S. said they had a good case, but recently suggested it would be better if Anderson-Whalley took the offer put forward by Mattel.

It still has to be refined, but it would require Anderson-Whalley to give up the web address. She wouldn’t have to rename her Calgary store.

The entire thing has left Anderson-Whalley infuriated.

“All the work, all the effort, all my time and for what? For some big corporation to come in and just take what they feel they have to have,” she said.

“They are a bulldozer company.”

Representatives from Mattel did not return phone calls.