Thursday, June 30, 2005 | 11:02 a.m.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman vowed Wednesday that he would conduct a full hearing to get to the bottom of a potentially lucrative trademark transfer agreement between the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and advertising agency R&R Partners Inc.
Goodman, who chairs the LVCVA board, put the issue on the board's July 12 meeting agenda.
The mayor said Wednesday that the only other LVCVA board member he has talked to about this subject was Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson, who also had called for the issue to be placed on next month's agenda.
Goodman said he expects the board to ask numerous questions about the agreement that was signed on Nov. 9 by LVCVA President Rossi Ralenkotter and R&R Chief Executive Billy Vassiliadis.
"You know me, I've never been shy," Goodman said.
The agreement called for the LVCVA, a quasi-public agency that promotes tourism, to transfer the rights to the popular slogan "What happens here, stays here" to R&R. The rights were transferred to R&R for $1.
That gave R&R "all rights to damages or profits" related to that slogan and another slogan, "We work as hard as we play." R&R, which developed the slogans for the LVCVA, and its predecessor, R&R Advertising Ltd., have held the authority's marketing contract since 1980.
But the trademark assignment agreement was reached without the knowledge of the 13-member board, which includes locally elected politicians and industry representatives.
"I won't comment until this gets a full hearing, but I promise you there will be no whitewash," Goodman said. "I know Rossi Ralenkotter and I think his integrity is unimpeachable. I'm confident that at the end of the day this will be resolved."
Goodman said he has been reluctant to discuss the matter with other board members for fear of violating open meeting laws.
"Everything we do should be out in the open and there should be a complete airing of the situation," he said.
One of Southern Nevada's most outspoken politicians, state Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, has a suggestion for the board to consider about how potential profits from the trademark deal should be handled.
"It really sounds like the proceeds ought to be plowed back into the marketing of Las Vegas," Beers said. "I would tell the board to have an addendum to the agreement drawn up to clearly state that the profits and proceeds from the marketing of the slogan go to the convention and visitors authority."
Whether there should be an addendum to the agreement stipulating that "What stays here" merchandising profits be returned to the LVCVA is a matter to be decided between the tourism authority and the attorneys R&R retained in a trademark infringement lawsuit against a California woman, Vassiliadis said.
"I would be amenable to whatever would give comfort to the cynics while protecting the trademark," he said. "The attorneys would have to decide all of this."
Despite the wording of the eight-page agreement, Ralenkotter has insisted that any profits related to the "What stays here" slogan would go back to the LVCVA since the authority still owns the work product R&R has produced for the tourism authority.
And Vassiliadis said Wednesday he would not allow his company to profit from the slogan either. But, when pressed, he would not rule out the possibility his agency could hire a merchandising firm that would profit from the sale of coffee mugs, T-shirts and other souvenirs containing the slogan.
"I can tell you that in 25 years we have never sold goods or profited from them," Vassiliadis said. "We don't merchandise. That's not our area of expertise."
The slogan, first used in television advertisements in 2003, has become an internationally recognized phrase.
The date of the agreement, Nov. 9, was the same day the LVCVA board in a separate action gave Ralenkotter the authority to "assign all intellectual property." The following day, R&R's trademark application was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Virginia.
Records also indicate that R&R applied in August for separate trademarks for the slogans "Only in Las Vegas," "Only in Vegas" and "Only Vegas."
Vassiliadis said that the agreement was intended to give his agency the right to defend slogans developed for the LVCVA. He said it was prompted by a legal dispute his agency has with California clothier Dorothy Tovar, who used the phrase "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" to market clothing.
"Our attorneys told us we need full legal standing in court," Vassiliadis said.
R&R has alleged in an ongoing federal lawsuit that Tovar committed trademark infringement. Tovar has countered that R&R had no standing to file the lawsuit.
Vassiliadis said it's the first time his company has sued anyone for allegedly misusing slogans that R&R developed for the LVCVA.
But he said that R&R over the past 20 years has sent out an estimated 60 to 75 cease-and-desist orders that urged individuals and business to stop using slogans that were developed for the tourism authority. Each time, Vassiliadis said, the individual or business stopped their usage. This included a golf company that he said used some of R&R's TV spots in its own advertising without permission.
R&R had sent out the cease-and-desist orders as a service it provides to the LVCVA because Vassiliadis said the tourism authority lacks what his agency has -- the staff to monitor the use or abuse of slogans prepared for the LVCVA.
"We don't charge them for that," he said.
Vassiliadis said he saw nothing unusual with the fact that the agreement he signed with Ralenkotter wasn't brought to the LVCVA board's attention.
"It was viewed as a normal course of business," Vassiliadis said.
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