It’s not often that a Playboy model becomes more famous for her dispute with her former boyfriend, Hugh Hefner, than for her pictorial or title as Playboy Playmate of The year, but that certainly became the case with the cover girl of the iconic magazine for May 1980, as a centerfold in December 1980 and again on the issue of Playboy June 1981.

After leaving Playboy, Welles began her online business in 1997, selling pictures of herself. On her website, she described herself as a former Playboy model and Playmate of the Year. Playboy Enterprises, which was starting up its own online business at this time, sued Welles in 1998, claiming that it had the exclusive right to use of its trademark terms “Playboy” and “Playmate of the Year” for commercial purposes. The outcome of the legal wrangle was that virtually all of Welles’ uses of the terms were considered nominative uses, and did not infringe.

In essence, the court found that Welles’ watermark and metatags were a fair use of those terms because they accurately described her. Playboy, after all, had bestowed those terms on Welles in 1981 and had never objected to Welles’ use of the marks until the launching of her web site. In addition, the court found that Welles was not trying to deceive, mislead or confuse consumers through her use of the marks or metatags. Welles’ web site contains a disclaimer which states clearly there is no relationship with Playboy and it’s web site.

However, Welles closed down her website on October 31, 2006 with the announcement that it had “been a fun ride”.

Terri, who was born in Santa Monica, California married NHL ice hockey player Charlie Simmer in 1981 but the couple divorced in 1986 after she gave birth to a daughter.

Terri also followed a brief acting career and is also known as Terri Knepper.