Station Casinos files trademark lawsuits

Alana Roberts

Wednesday, May 12, 2004 | 10:31 a.m.

Las Vegas locals casino company Station Casinos Inc. has filed two federal "cybersquatting" lawsuits accusing two alleged Internet casino companies of trademark infringement.

The company filed the lawsuits last week in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.

One is against Robert Marshall, chief executive of Fort Worth, Texas-based ECM Group Inc. The lawsuit also lists the company as a defendant. The second lawsuit was filed against Mahmoud Nadim, of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The lawsuits allege that Marshall owns www.silverstationcasino.com, while Nadim owns www.stationcasino.com, and that the domain names either use Station Casinos' trademarks or are confusingly similar to the company's trademarks. The lawsuits also allege the defendants are seeking to profit in bad faith from Station Casino's trademarks. Station Casinos' domain name is www.stationcasinos.com.

U.S. District Judge Robert C. Jones last week granted a temporary restraining order forcing Primus Telecom, the domain registrar of www.silverstationcasino.com, to freeze the Web site and transfer ownership of the domain name to Station Casinos. No action has yet been taken against the other Web site, according to court filings.

Neither defendant's Web site is currently available.

"By registering and/or using a domain name containing plaintiff's (Station Casinos) trademarks, defendant was and is attempting to trade on the goodwill of plaintiff," the lawsuit against Nadim said.

The Marshall lawsuit said: "By registering and/or using a domain name containing plaintiff's (Station Casinos) trademarks, defendants were and are attempting to trade on the goodwill of plaintiff," the lawsuit said.

In the lawsuits, Station Casinos accuses the defendants of cybersquatting, trademark infringement, unfair competition, trademark dilution, common law trademark infringement, deceptive trade practices and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage.

Marshall said he had never heard of Station Casinos until he was contacted Monday about the lawsuit and that he had no idea he was accused of infringing on the company's trademark.

"We had no idea they were there. There won't be any fight," he said in a telephone interview. He didn't specify what kind of company ECM is. Nadim could not be reached for comment.