Casinos invoke new cybersquatting law in trademark suit

Grace Leong

Friday, Jan. 21, 2000 | 10:59 a.m.

Registered domains

Nicholas Stirpe is accused of registering these domain names with Network Solutions, the registrar of domain names:

Six Las Vegas hotel-casino operators are amending their lawsuit against a Las Vegas man to include alleged violations of the new Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.

The act, which went into effect last Nov. 29 and is part of the federal Trademark Act, specifically prohibits the bad faith intentional registration and use of a domain name that contains a famous or distinctive trademark.

In one of the first suits to be filed in Nevada under this act, Mirage Resorts Inc., Mandalay Resort Group, the Stardust, Aladdin, Palace Station and MGM Grand Inc. are seeking an injunction to stop Nicholas Stirpe from appropriating their trademarks and domain names.

"The act is retroactive. It applies to cybersquatting which took place prior to the effective date of the act," said Whitney Thier, an attorney with Quirk & Tratos, an intellectual property firm.

"This act clearly penalizes cybersquatting behavior ... The trademark act prohibits trademark infringement, that is, using someone's name or logo for competitive purposes," she said. "But the anti-cybersquatting act specifically prohibits the use of domain names (by cybersquatters) to lead consumers to their business."

The U.S. District Court suit, which was first filed on Oct. 27, 1999, alleged Stirpe registered 15 domain names containing the plaintiffs' trademarks.

The suit said each domain name linked to his website,"lasvegas-hotelcasinos.com," which offered reservations for major hotel-casinos in Las Vegas.

Mirage Resorts Inc. owns the Mirage, Golden Nugget and Bellagio hotel-casinos.

Mandalay Resort Group, formerly Circus Circus Enterprises Inc., owns Mandalay Bay, Circus Circus, Excalibur and the Luxor hotel-casinos.

Mirage and Mandalay jointly own the Monte Carlo hotel-casino.

Aladdin Gaming LLC is building the new Aladdin hotel-casino. Station Casinos Inc. owns Palace Station hotel-casino. MGM Grand Inc. owns the MGM Grand and New York-New York hotel-casinos.

The suit said Stirpe, who allegedly ignored the plaintiffs' repeated demands to stop infringing the plaintiffs' trademark and domain names, was trying to disrupt their business by misleading the public into thinking his hotel booking services are affiliated with and sponsored by the hotel-casinos.

The suit said Stirpe, in a Sep. 28, 1999 letter, allegedly proposed opening a travel business with the hotel-casinos, and allegedly added he would be willing to lease the domain names for their use if they weren't interested in his proposal.

Stirpe could not be reached for comment on the amended lawsuit.