R&R trademark suit to continue in Reno

Thursday, July 28, 2005 | 9:49 a.m.

A trademark infringement lawsuit that R&R Partners Inc. of Las Vegas filed against a California clothier will proceed in U.S. District Court in Reno after a settlement conference Wednesday ended without resolution.

R&R in March 2004 sued Dorothy Tovar of Placerville, Calif., alleging that her use of the trademarked slogan, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" on clothing violates the "What happens here stays here" slogan the advertising agency developed in late 2002 for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Tovar has denied the allegation and continues to sell her clothing at many Strip resorts.

The failure to come to a resolution in a conference mediated by U.S. Magistrate Robert McQuaid Jr. in Reno means that it could take at least several more months before the LVCVA, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, speaks publicly about the trademark issue and its own intellectual property policy.

The LVCVA hired international law firm Morrison & Foerster to assist the tourism authority in litigation and investigate its trademark policies, but the LVCVA board and its staff have said they will not comment on trademark issues until the lawsuit is resolved.

The LVCVA was added as a plaintiff to the lawsuit on Monday, but no trial date has been set in the case.

Nobody affiliated with the case would comment on the settlement conference beyond a one-paragraph release authorized by McQuaid and distributed by the LVCVA:

"The parties were unable to resolve the case at the settlement conference. The Court has admonished all the parties not to discuss any particulars of the settlement conference or any statements made therein. The parties intend to pursue this matter in litigation to protect their asserted rights."

Minutes of the conference provided by the court indicated that the parties met in the morning for two hours and 41 minutes before reaching an impasse. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, chairman of the LVCVA board, and Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson, a board member and former board chairman, attended the conference, along with attorneys for all parties involved.

The LVCVA, which paid for the "What happens here" ad campaign through hotel and motel room tax revenue, began using that slogan in December 2002. Tovar began selling her clothing line with the "What happens in Vegas" slogan in April 2003.

Tovar obtained her trademarks first, but R&R has alleged that she did so fraudulently. Tovar, in turn, has challenged R&R's claim that it owned the rights to the "What happens here" slogan at the time the lawsuit was filed.

LVCVA President Rossi Ralenkotter assigned the tourism authority's trademark rights to the "What happens here" slogan to R&R on Nov. 9, the same day the board gave him the authority to transfer intellectual property. The board, however, was not told about the trademark transfer agreement.

It also wasn't until last week, 16 months after the lawsuit was filed, that paperwork was properly filed with the Nevada secretary of state's office to transfer ownership of the LVCVA's state trademark and service mark for the slogan to R&R.