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BMW is trying to clean up its act on the web. The German carmaker sent a letter of complaint this week to an adult search engine based in the Netherlands, asking it to remove references to its cars that appear in search listings for adult content.
The search site, AskJolene.com, lets users search for keywords such as the name of a porn star and produces links to picture galleries hosted on other sites. It is like a risque sister to Ask Jeeves, although the two are not related.
The car maker moans that its trademarks are being infringed in some galleries that the site links to. Including its name in the listings is "detrimental to the distinctive character" of the BMW brand, the company said in the letter it sent on Monday. It gave the search engine two days to remove the listings and block access to the offending galleries.
AskJolene was considering its options on Wednesday. Complying with the request means its search results would "not be 100 percent%", says marketing chief Mike Schwalbach. It could also set a precedent affecting other search engines, he says.
"Our lawyer is investigating the best options and we will take his legal advice," he says.
WiseGuys of the Netherlands operates AskJolene, and its servers are hosted in the Netherlands, Schwalbach says.
BMW confirmed it sent the letter but declined further comment. It may be heartened to know that it is not the most popular car maker among pornographers: searching for Porsche at AskJolene produces more than twice as many hits.
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