Internet firms sued over MGM, Mirage names

Tuesday, May 16, 2000 | 10:58 a.m.

MGM Grand Inc. is seeking a worldwide injunction to compel a domain name registrar to transfer to it ownership of 26 Internet domain names that allegedly infringe on its trademarks.

In a U.S. District Court suit, MGM Grand Inc., New York-New York Hotel & Casino LLC, and the Primadonna Co. LLC allege the 26 defendant domain name owners intended to divert customers from the hotel-casinos' websites to their own sites and allegedly provided false contact information in their domain name registration.

MGM Grand owns the New York-New York hotel-casino in Las Vegas and the Primadonna properties at Primm, which is on I-15 south of Las Vegas.

The suit said the defendants, located in the United States, Canada, South America, the Middle East, Europe and Asia, violated the 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.

MGM Grand, which owns the domain name "mgmgrand.com," allege cybersquatters registered the domain names "mgm-mirage.com" and "miragemgm.com" on Feb. 23, the day MGM Grand announced its offer to buy Mirage Resorts Inc.

Within days or weeks after the announcement of the $6.4 billion merger, several more domain names were registered by the defendants, the suit said. These include "mgm-mirage.net," "mgm-mirage.org," "mgmgrandmirage.com," "mgmmirage.com," "mgmirage.com," "mgmmirageresorts.com" and "themgmmirage.com."

MGM Grand, which also owns Studio 54, a nightclub in the MGM Grand hotel-casino and its tradename, is seeking a transfer of the defendants' domain names, "studio54.net," "studio54.org" and "studio-54-club.com."

New York-New York Hotel & Casino, which owns the domain name "nynyhotelcasino.com", is seeking a transfer of the defendant owners' names "newyorknewyorkcasino.com," "newyorknewyorkcasino.net," "nynycasino.com" and "nynycasinonet."

Primadonna, which owns Whiskey Pete's and Buffalo Bill's hotel-casinos in Primm and the domain names "primadonna.com/whiskeypetes.html," and "primadonna.com/buffalobills.html," is seeking a transfer of the defendants' domain names, "whiskey-pete.com," "whiskeypete.com," "whiskeypetes.com," "buffalobillscasino.net" and "buffalobills-casino.com."

The defendants could not be reached for comment.