Caesars goes after ‘Scissors Palace’

Sun Staff

Tuesday, July 11, 2000 | 11:27 a.m.

Park Place Entertainment Corp.'s Caesars World Inc. is seeking an injunction to stop a Las Vegas beauty salon from operating as "Scissors Palace," alleging the similar-sounding name, signs and brochures infringe its Caesars Palace trademark and diverts customers away from its salon.

In a U.S. District Court lawsuit, Caesars Palace, which operates a salon called the Venus Salon that offers the same types of salon and spa services as Scissors Palace, and caters to tourists and locals, said it could lose more business because consumers are confused by the similar-sounding names.

Caesars Palace said a few customers had visited the Caesars Palace salon thinking they had an appointment there only to learn they had mistakenly scheduled an appointment with Scissors Palace.

The lawsuit also said Scissors Palace's website at www.scissorspalace.com shows its salon store front with romanesque lettering mimicking Caesars Palace lettering.

"If the court were not to prevent defendant's use of its Scissors Palace mark, the court would permit open warfare on the Caesars Palace mark," the lawsuit said. "When spoken, 'Scissors Palace' and 'Caesars Palace' share every phonetic quality but one vowel sound."

"The audible difference is so minimal that even a careful listener would easily mistake 'Scissors' for 'Caesars.' This is especially troublesome when one considers that in the salon industry, 'word of mouth' marketing is an important marketing channel," the suit said.

But John Lukens, Scissors Palace's attorney, disagreed. "What we have is a classic example of a big kid on the block trying to be a bully," he said. "Won't Caesars Palace have more credence if it had called its salon Caesars Palace hair salon or Scissors Palace hair salon?

"About 24 to 25 states have salons called Scissors Palace," Lukens said. "There is a salon called the Hair Force in Las Vegas. Do you think the U.S. Air Force will sue them because of the possibility of confusion?"