MGM Files Federal Trademark Lawsuit Over Poker Domains
According to Vegasinc.com, MGM Resorts International filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Thursday against four individuals and two companies it claims have been infringing on its trademarks by registering poker website names that include the names of MGM casinos in Las Vegas.
The lawsuit alleging trademark infringement was against the owners of:
bellagioonlinepoker.com
circuscircuspoker.com
excaliburpoker.com
luxorpoker.com
mandalaybayonlinepoker.com
mgmpoker.com
ariapoker.com
In The complaint MGM alleges that the registrants of the names intended to profit off the casinos’ “substantial fame, goodwill and consumer recognition.
“The defendants have or have had a bad faith intent to profit from their registration of the domain names,” charges the suit, which alleges the defendants have been involved in either “cybersquatting” — the use of other’s trademarks to earn a profit online — or trademark infringement, or in some cases both.
“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 Resorts’ attorneys said in a request for a temporary restraining order that would block the defendants from using those names.
MGM owns the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Aria, The Luxor, Circus Circus, the Excalibur and of course MGM casinos and resorts.
The defendants are:
• Shahram Kolahzadeh, believed to be a resident of Zimbabwe who allegedly registered the ariapoker name.
• Evan Krentzman of Woodland Hills, Calif., allegedly the owner of the bellagioonlinepoker name.
• Roberto Ciamillo of Shelby Township, Mich., allegedly the owner of the circuscircuspoker name.
• Adam Majewski of McKinney, Texas, allegedly the owner of the excaliburpoker.com name.
• PokerSons, an entity based in London that allegedly owns the luxorpoker.com and mgmpoker.com names.
• RevNet, an entity in Hackensack, N.J., that allegedly owns the mandalaybayonlinepoker.com name.
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This kind of blatant stuff – Commercial or non-Commercial – has been off limits for around 10 years. Furthermore, it is this kind a stuff that makes owners of an otherwise generic, common use or geographic use domain – a “cybersquatter” in the eyes of a udrp panel and maybe even some ACPA Courts.
Blatant Commercial infringement like this needs to be prosecuted fully – good for MGM.
Thats why I go generic like OnlineGamingNevada.Com I got it because it is a broader generic name.
These are just parked names.
Wow – what CRIMINALS they must be (sigh)
They’ve been filing such suits for years.
This is a no-brainer, why attach anything to a trademarked name or brand? it’s only asking for trouble.
If you are going to register or buy poker/casino names, then either go for generic keyword or brandable domains. I hope those guys learned their lesson.
These sites are just landing pages to nothing What a waste of time. No revenue no Casino nothing Im sure if MGM called them and demanded the sites they would have gotten them. This is BS
if that were true, im sure they would have transfered them to avoid a court hearing dmpartners