Vegas casino operators win trademark cases

Monday, Jan. 7, 2002 | 9:27 a.m.

A federal judge in Las Vegas ordered two Internet website companies and their owners to stop "registering or trafficking" domain names containing the trademarks of five Las Vegas gaming companies.

Sandra Rennert, president of Crown Promotions Inc. of Las Vegas, and Yelena Wright, owner of Capital Placement LLC of Salt Lake City, were ordered to return 11 domain names bearing the trademarks of Mandalay Resort Group, Bellagio LLC, Station Casinos Inc., Fitzgeralds Gaming Corp. and the Primadonna Co. LLC.

Separately, MGM MIRAGE's Bellagio hotel-casino dropped its lawsuit against Knot Investments, a Belize company accused of using Bellagio's trademarks to misdirect Web users to its online casino Worldwide Gamble.

Bellagio -- which sued Knot, Bing Obaldo (a Denton, Texas, man), Miami-based MCnet Corp. and its owners, Willy Mehu and Emily Robbins, in U.S. District Court in June -- dropped its lawsuit against Knot after the company agreed to stop using the Treasure Island, New York-New York, MGM, MGM Grand, Luxor, Excalibur, Gold Strike and Bellagio names to advertise its online gaming activities.