I'm the only pukka polo player, says Lauren

It has been the favoured "sport of kings" since the days of ancient Persia. But now polo, the game beloved of royal families for centuries, is facing an extraordinary challenge to its pedigree – after being accused of "infringing" the trademark of the fashion label Polo.

Lawyers for Ralph Lauren, the American style guru who gave us Polo Sport clothing and aftershave, have written to Britain's top polo player demanding he surrender them his website.

Henry Brett, 27, had intended to use the innocuously named "x-polo.com" to launch a new agency for polo ponies. Instead, he is facing a £63,000 lawsuit unless he stops "cybersquatting" and hands it over to Mr Lauren.

Mr Brett is not the only prominent member of the UK polo set to have been threatened. Mr Lauren's lawyers admit to having sent "more than five or 10" further legal warnings to the registered owners of other websites using the word polo.

Not even long-standing local polo clubs are immune. Bryan Morrison, owner of the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club, is involved in an ongoing tussle with Mr Lauren over his use of polo iconography on such merchandise as mugs and scarves.

News of the unlikely dispute comes after a week in which Victoria Beckham lodged an objection to an attempt by Peterborough United to trademark the word posh. Her stand has been publicly ridiculed by fans of the team, which has used the nickname for 68 years, as well as Peter Loraine, the former editor of Top of the Pops magazine who first named her Posh Spice in 1996.

Mr Brett, currently seeded as Britain's number one polo player, received his threat in the form of a letter from Amster, Rothstein and Ebenstein, Mr Lauren's New York-based lawyers. It reads: "It has recently come to our attention that you have registered the domain name x-polo.com. In view of Polo's prior rights in and to the Polo Marks [sic], we believe your registration of this domain name constitutes, inter alia, infringement, false advertising and dilution of our client's Polo Trademarks ... as well as violation of Polo's common law rights... In view of the foregoing, we demand that you immediately take all necessary steps to assign your registration of x-polo.com to our client."

Mr Brett told The Independent on Sunday: "The whole thing is absurd. I haven't even launched the website yet, but before I knew it I received this standard letter from Ralph Lauren's lawyers telling me I couldn't use the name of the sport I've been playing all my life. He's branding the name of a sport as his own.

"It's not as if I'm in competition with Ralph Lauren, or I'm going to sell clothes, though maybe I should do now."

Fortunately for Mr Brett, expert guidance is reassuringly close to home: his father, Hugh, is one of the UK's foremost trademark lawyers.

Mr Morrison said of his dispute: "This all started because I had the temerity to want to brand products with the name of my club. It's totally absurd that this man thinks he has the right to own the word polo. If anything, he owes us and the sport for his success – not the other way round."

Mr Lauren's attorney, Anthony LoCicero, said he had written to Mr Brett and others because he could not be certain their websites did not infringe his client's trademark.

"We are well aware of the sport of polo and its history and the fact that there are many people around the world who play polo and they have the right to do so," he said. "But we have come across people who are using the polo name to infringe the trademark."

A whole world of polos

Polo Mints

Nestlé's famous "mint with a hole" which celebrated its 50th birthday four years ago

Volkswagen Polo

The nifty motor car that has become one of the world's best-selling hatchbacks and a staple of the school run

Marco Polo

The 13th-century Venetian explorer who became the first European to travel across Asia

Water Polo

Variant of the equestrian game, except there are no horses, no sticks and it takes place in a swimming pool

YSL ad to feature Britain's first full-frontal male nude

By Severin Carrell

For the first time in Britain an advert featuring a full-frontal male nude is to appear in leading style and art magazines. The black and white ad, for a scent called M7 by French perfumier Yves Saint Laurent, shows a reclining nude – with his penis clearly visible.

The photograph, which has already caused a stir in France after appearing in Vogue, is due to be featured in the December issues of the UK magazinesThe Face, ID, and Dazed and Confused.

Some believed YSL would run a more discreet "edited" advert for the UK, given the controversy a full nude might provoke; in 2000, YSL had to stop a billboard perfume campaign showing a naked Sophie Dahl. The Advertising Standards Authority was inundated with complaints.

The marketing strategy for M7 is under wraps at present. Allegedly the company thought of placing the male nude in Cosmopolitan; but it is to be sophisticated cult mags, including Frieze, that will test public reaction.

Already church groups have denounced the ad. And John Beyer, Mediawatch's head, views it as an offence to public decency that "plainly pushes the boundaries".

The interesting question, though, is the model. Who is he? It's French martial arts champion Samuel de Cubber, spotted on a beach by YSL's artistic director Tom Ford. "Our male standard of beauty is very contrived. I wanted to show a man representing a natural image of male beauty," he said.

The ASA has refused to comment until a complaint has been received.