Nevada casino operator sues website over use of its name

Monday, Aug. 13, 2001 | 10:27 a.m.

The operator of the Fitzgeralds hotel-casinos in Reno and Las Vegas sued to stop the operator of an Internet domain name, fitzgeraldscasino.com, from using its trade name to divert customers to its shopping and gambling website.

Fitzgeralds Gaming Corp., which owns the website fitzgeralds.com, sued fitzgeraldscasino.com, an Internet domain name allegedly owned by a South Korean business in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Friday.

John Krieger, Fitzgeralds' attorney, said this lawsuit was a second attempt by the hotel-casino to recover the Fitzgeralds domain name.

"The first suit was filed on March 29 against Derek Bowlin, a St. Johns, Antigua, operator of an online gaming website, fitzgerald's casino. After we sued him, the court instituted an injunction, which placed the domain name on hold. But the domain name registrar permitted, despite the court order, the name to fall back to the general registry," he said.

The defendant could not be reached for comment.