Maxim drags Playboy to US District Court over 'Playmate Search' competition

Maxim drags Playboy to US District Court over 'Playmate Search' competition

Requests that the Manhattan court order blocking the American lifestyle magazine from misusing its trade secrets

The publishers of New York-based men's magazine Maxim have dragged their rival, Playboy, to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. It alleged that Playboy created its ‘Great Playmate Search’ competition using trade secrets and other material from Maxim's ‘Cover Girl’ competition.

It added that Playboy’s staff lifted Maxim’s proprietary technology and copyrighted material, utilizing it to build an online platform and host its tournament for aspiring models.

Maxim requested a court order blocking Playboy from misusing its trade secrets and sought unspecified monetary damages.

In a statement, Justin Lewis, the spokesperson for Maxim, stated that the company "will let the complaint speak for itself and will address the matter through the legal process."

In its lawsuit, Maxim explained that it has been running the ‘Cover Girl’ competition since 2018. It provided aspiring models an opportunity to appear on the magazine's cover, boosting the brand and revenue.

Maxim added that in 2025, “Playboy embarked on a scheme to copy, misappropriate, and reverse-engineer Maxim’s novel and proprietary technologies and processes for running online contests."

The publisher complained that Playboy staff signed up ‘dummy’ Cover Girl participants and copied several aspects of Maxim's contest platform, including its website design, competition rules and mechanics, to construct its Great Playmate Search. It furthered that Playboy launched its competition in 2025, with plans to run it again soon.

On the other hand, Ben Kohn, CEO of Playboy, clarified that on the 2025 earnings call, he expected paid voting for the competition to be "a multimillion-dollar annual business for us going forward.”