MGM Resorts Files Trademark Infringement Suit Over Domain Names
As first reported by Vegas Inc. on Friday, MGM Resorts International has filed suit against four individuals and two companies for trademark infringement. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, claims that each of the defendants registered poker-related websites between 2002 and 2005 that used names of MGM properties.
The lawsuit lists the following sites linked by name with MGM casinos: bellagioonlinepoker.com, circuscircuspoker.com, excaliburpoker.com, luxorpoker.com, mandalaybayonlinepoker.com, mgmpoker.com and ariapoker.com.
The lawsuit charges that each of the casino names has become famous because of billions of dollars MGM spent advertising and promotions over the years, according to the report. MGM claims that the defendants are trying to capitalize on MGM's investment in each property.
“The defendants have or have had a bad faith intent to profit from their registration of the domain names,” the suit claims.
Attorneys for MGM Resorts have requested a temporary restraining order against the defendants that would block them from using the domain names. “The defendants have done nothing more than tack on the descriptive terms 'poker' or 'online poker' to each of the MGM marks to form the domain names. Accordingly, there is no question that the domain names are confusingly similar to the MGM marks," MGM's attorneys said, according to the report.
The defendants in the lawsuit are Shahram Kolahzadeh (who registered ariapoker.com), Evan Krentzman (bellagioonlinepoker.com), Roberto Ciamillo (circuscircuspoker.com), Adam Majewski (excaliburpoker.com), entity PokerSons (luxorpoker.com and mgmpoker.com), and entity RevNet (mandalaybayonlinepoker.com).
Read more at vegasinc.com.
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