Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LVCVA to hire firm to protect slogan

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board may go to court to make sure that its popular tourism slogan, "What happens here, stays here," also applies to the slogan itself.

On Tuesday, the tourism board will be asked to hire a prominent local law firm to oppose others who have applied for federal trademarks that are the same or similar to Las Vegas' slogan.

The board will be asked to retain the Las Vegas law firm Schreck Brignone to file documents against at least eight separate trademark actions filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The firm is led by Frank Schreck, a leading gaming attorney, and Andrew Brignone, who specializes in employment law.

The aggressive posture by the LVCVA is a strategy that its board adopted last month in approving a broad range of new and revised internal operating policies based on recommendations by another law firm, Morrison & Foerster.

That firm was retained to investigate the LVCVA's trademark policies and represent it in litigation against Dorothy Tovar of Placerville, Calif., who used the trademark slogan "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" on a line of clothing sold at Strip resorts and elsewhere.

The LVCVA has already paid Morrison & Foerster $492,694 this year for its work. Luke Puschnig, the authority's general counsel, said Thursday he did not yet how much the board would have to spend to retain Schreck Brignone.

"All I can tell you is that if we consider a potential trademark to be in conflict with 'What happens here, stays here,' we will prosecute those trademarks in filings with the trademark office," Puschnig said. "Some of our oppositions will be filed against Dorothy Tovar."

Daniel Ballard, Tovar's attorney, does not dispute that the LVCVA has the right to trademark the "What happens here" slogan. But said he did not believe the authority could successfully oppose his client's trademarks because the trademark office generally does not get involved in such disputes when there is litigation on the same matter in federal court.

"It's routine for an entity that holds a trademark to enforce its trademark," Ballard said. "The question is, how far are those rights extended? We believe they cannot extend to my client's use of 'What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.' "

R&R Partners Inc., the Las Vegas advertising firm that devised the "What happens here" slogan for the LVCVA, has applied for two federal "marks" to use the phrase on goods and services and in promotional campaigns. The company currently owns the Nevada marks for that slogan.

The LVCVA transferred its trademark rights to the slogan to R&R in a secret deal in November intended to give R&R a better chance of fighting Tovar in federal court. The LVCVA has since joined R&R as a plaintiff in the trademark infringement case.

Tovar already has had two trademark applications approved by the trademark office and has other applications pending to use her slogan on other goods.

There also are pending trademark applications from Wager Inc. and Kenneth Scott of Scottsdale, Ariz., to use the "What happens here, stays here" slogan on gaming tables and machines and for a nightclub and bar.

In addition, there are pending applications for many similar slogans, including "What happens at the Palms never happened," from the Palms, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," from the Las Vegas Hilton, and "What happens in Vegas, grows in Vegas at the Sands." The latter application came from Venetian owner Sheldon Adelson's Interface Group-Nevada Inc. on behalf of the Sands Expo & Convention Center.

Puschnig said he has a list of trademark actions the LVCVA would like to oppose, but declined to reveal the list or whether any of the cases involve the Las Vegas resorts that also have applied for similar trademarks.06

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