• The Wall Street Journal, Thursday, July 5, 2007 10:41 AM

Robert Engel, a Chicago entrepreneur, is using the Internet to battle rampant piracy of his company's BraBaby--a plastic cage that looks like a Wiffle ball and prevents bras from getting tangled in washing machines. He compares his fight to a game of Whac-A-Mole: shut down one pirate, another springs up.

Many of the imposters brazenly use the name BraBaby, sometimes with a slightly different styling from the rendering Engel uses. They often appropriate Engel's logo and his promotional photos--including shots of his wife, Laura, BraBaby's creator, cradling the product.

Engel says he has seen his BraBaby priced as low as 38 cents, compared with its normal $1.25 wholesale cost. With the help of his lawyers, he has already sent cease-and-desist letters to 71 Chinese companies. A few have stopped, but the rest have plowed ahead, replacing Engel's promotional photos with their own or simply ignoring him.

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