Internet sports book must surrender web domains

Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2001 | 10:28 a.m.

A federal judge has ordered a Costa Rican Internet sports book to surrender two website domain names to Rio Properties Inc.

Judge Philip Pro ordered Rio International Interlink to surrender the domain names "Riosports.com" and "Betrio.com" to the Harrah's Entertainment Inc. subsidiary immediately. Pro also ordered Rio International to pay attorney's fees for both sides "in light of the willful, bad faith nature of (Rio International's) conduct in this matter."

Pro issued the order after the Rio hotel-casino in Las Vegas complained that Rio International was failing to comply with the discovery process.

"It is apparent to this court that (Rio International) not only failed to comply with this court's order (to cooperate with discovery), but has no intention of doing so," Pro wrote.

Pro's order also prohibits Rio International from any future efforts to register domain names, e-mail addresses or trademarks "which incorporate the term 'Rio' or any confusingly similar term, mark or name."

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