Las Vegas casino owner in litigation over Coast name

Grace Leong

Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2001 | 10:49 a.m.

Coast Resorts Inc., owner of the Suncoast, Orleans, Barbary Coast and Gold Coast casinos in Las Vegas, is fighting a Vancouver, British Columbia-based hotel chain over which company has rights to use the Coast trademark.

Coast Resorts, which said Coast Hotels Ltd. doesn't offer any gaming services and has no hotel operations in Nevada, sued the hotel chain in U.S. District Court in a preemptive strike after Coast Hotels allegedly sent letters threatening legal action against Coast Resorts if it refused to stop using the "Coast Resorts Inc." mark.

Coast Resorts said it had been using the Coast mark for more than 20 years without any reported instances of confusion between its services and those of Coast Hotels.

But Mary Ann Booth, Coast Hotels' in-house attorney, disagreed.

"We want Coast Resorts to stop using the Coast Resorts Inc. mark because we've been using the Coast name longer than Coast Resorts has."

"Coast Hotels currently doesn't operate any hotels in the United States but it markets under the 'Coast Hotels' and 'Coast Hotels & Resorts' name and we're expanding our business in the United States," she said. "We've had cases where someone who was in Las Vegas saw the Coast Resorts Inc. name and contacted us asking if that was our property."

"The lawsuit was a surprise because we've been trying to negotiate a settlement with Coast Resorts," Booth said. "We're not opposed to Coast Resorts' use of the Barbary Coast, Suncoast or Gold Coast names, just the Coast Resorts Inc. name, which isn't a name they advertise under."