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Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.
The owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal sued three companies this month, charging they’re infringing on its trademarked term “The Best of Las Vegas.”
The lawsuits say the “Best of Las Vegas” phrase covers the newspaper’s section featuring consumer preferences and recommendations regarding people, places, goods, services, restaurants, entertainment, arts, sports and recreation in the Las Vegas area.
The trademarks also cover the newspaper’s Web site and paper award certificates provided to Best of Las Vegas winners, the lawsuits say.
Suits were filed by Stephens Media LLC against:
• Gault Millau Inc., a company based in California.
• US Commerce Association (USCA), a company based in the Washington, D.C., area, and USCA official Kelly McCartney.
• CitiHealth LLC, a Nevada limited liability company.
The suit against Gault Millau claims the company runs a travel Web site called gayot.com that includes “The Best of Las Vegas Top Restaurants Hotels Travel Guide.”
Lawyers for Stephens complained in the lawsuit that gayot.com’s use of the R-J’s trademarked phrase “is likely to cause confusion, cause mistake or deceive consumers and the public with respect to the services offered in commerce by Gault Millau.”
In its lawsuit against USCA and McCartney, Stephens complained the defendants have been selling “award” plaques and trophies to small businesses by sending the businesses e-mails saying the businesses have won a “Best of Las Vegas Award” from USCA.
Stephens alleges small businesses desiring their award must pay $80 for an award plaque or $180 for a trophy, and the companies can publish press releases announcing they are winners of USCA awards.
“USCA is not actually a legitimate business or commerce association, but is merely a scheme directed and effectuated by McCartney to sell ‘award’ plaques and trophies to unsuspecting small businesses,” Stephens’ lawsuit charges.
Stephens’ lawsuit says USCA’s use of the “Best of Las Vegas” phrase “has damaged and will continue to damage the reputation and goodwill of Stephens.”
The suit against CitiHealth charges that in December 2008, the company published the January 2009 issue of “Healthy Living Las Vegas” and that the cover of the publication and its Web site included the phrase “Best of Las Vegas.”
“Consumers and the public will improperly conclude that Stephens sponsors and/or is affiliated with CitiHealth as a result of such consumers and the public observing the infringing mark on CitiHealth’s publications and CitiHealth’s Web site,” the lawsuit says.
Officials at Gault Millau and US Commerce Association could not be reached for comment on the allegations.
Ken Shepherd, publisher of Healthy Living, said the company was not aware of the Review-Journal’s “Best of Las Vegas” trademark when the January issue was published.
He said that after the magazine was published, the Review-Journal notified his company of the infringement and that CitiHealth then retrieved as many copies of the publication as it could find and removed them from circulation.
He said the “Best of Las Vegas” reference was removed from the Healthy
Living Web site.
Shepherd said that because of declining advertising revenue tied to the recession, the print edition of Healthy Living Las Vegas has been suspended, though its Web site remains active.
Stephens Media, in the meantime, continues to publish a similar magazine and Web site called “Las Vegas Health.”
Stephens Media is going to be busy with this one. Yes, they do own the legit trademark on "Best of Las Vegas" but they are going to have to sue every major business in this state and most others if they want to protect it.
AOL, The Times Newspaper, Station Casinos and most other casinos in town all use the term "Best of Las Vegas" on their web sites and other publications.
I guess their legal staff is going to be busy for a few years.
ambulance chasers.
If anything having others use the phrase will bring LVR more business! free advertising for cryin out loud! let it go..
The RJ has got some serious sack trying to sue Gayot. They are actually a well respected foodie
information site throughout the U.S.. The best of from the RJ is a JOKE even in thier own back yard! Culinary giants like Olive Garden, P.F.Changs, and Red Lobster topping their respective catagory's. Gayot has a Best of list for every major city. I can guarantee that no one would confuse the two.
Yes, RJ's Best is a joke. I hope they waste their money on this garbage suit.
I thought Sherm, Vin and the Cowboy Hat were against lawsuits? Oh, I guess that is if they are by injured workers, consumers or environmentalists.
I'll give the RJ the "Beast of Las Vegas Award" for hypocrisy.
I believe that the RJ has picked many wonderful places in Las Vegas to include in their "Best of Las Vegas" issues, but then they've pulled a number of stinkers too. I remember one year they picked Count Cool Rider as best TV horror show host in Las Vegas (yes it was a long time ago, but it was a awful). Just because something is the only option in a category doesn't make it the best. When they make up categories just to suck up to advertisers it indicates a lack of credibility. I still hold the RJ picks in high regard, but I have also seen some highly questionable picks along with the good ones.
If they had the category "Best 'Best of' List in Las Vegas" would they award it to themselves?
The RJ has to try to make money somehow.
We all know no one is buying the wacko right wing America hating newspaper.
Count Cool Rider WAS the best TV horror show host in Las Vegas.
That he was also the ONLY TV horror show host in Las Vegas should not diminish the prestige of his award.
Someone must be buying the RJ, because if they weren't, the Sun would be out of delivery options!
Sun hasn't turned a profit in this town for what, 20 years or more?
Like so many other liberal rags, it's a vanity publication supported by the personal fortune of a capitalist's heir who feels so guilty that his family succeeded in their capitalist exploitation of the working class that he devotes his life to a money losing endeavor publishing a newspaper no one buys to tell the rest of us how bad we are.
The difficulty lies with American copyright/trademark law, which generally requires the holder to pursue any and all infringements, no matter how small or inconsequential. If the holder doesn't do that, they risk a court ultimately finding that it has surrendered its rights when an infringer comes along and uses the mark in an economically signficant way. There was a great battle royal over this about 10 yrs ago over the use of "pokey.org" by a child who was a fan of Gumby and Pokey--and much drama ensued. See http://www.gelfmagazine.com/archives/the... for a discussion :)
stephens media will never sell the rj.
they made so much money in the boom years from advertising sales and paying their employees low wages that they could probably keep printing for 10 years without selling another ad.
i sold advertising for about 4 years for those urchins over there. "best of las vegas" is nothing more than a calculated advertising sales vehicle. they cram that section with as many stupid categories as possible like "best thai restaurant in summerlin" and "best thai restaurant in henderson" and "best thai restaurant in north las vegas, north of craig rd." so they can turn around and sell ads to businesses in those categories.
dear mr. business owner...i mean you DO want to be in this section, right? i mean...you DO want our readers to view you as one of the best, right?
big freaking sucker job because the average rj reader is 65 years old and is a moron. that's why you get "olive garden" for "best italian" and "burger king" for best burger.
The fact that the RJ is linked to kxnt is linked to ch 13 (ethics issues with Nina Radishtop) shows the birds of a feather flock together.
kxnt lobs softball questions to the 3 rj stooges, sherm, vin and the cowboy hat. just like they do to gibbons, enswign and lowdung.
They skype with chanell 13 "what are your listeners saying about....? Casey (guy who backed out of debate at unlv with progressive talk hosts) the only thing, Casey didn't take calls from any listeners and proceeds to give his own opinions...about a misleading as 13's tire job story....
the greenspun's have exploited the working class?
lol!
huh?
how?
the "sun" of course has a liberal agenda, but to say the greenspun's have exploited anyone without some evidence to back that up is not only moronic, but cowardly.
the "sun" exists mainly as a loss leader to promote their more profitable publications like "vegas" magazine, and vegas.com and the casinos they have a stake in and american nevada real estate.
nothing wrong with that, folks.
that's capitalism.
don't like it?
start your own newspaper / casino / real estate company and do it differently.
Their "best of" is as much of a joke as their Mason Dixon polls, which had MCCain - Obama even four months ahead of the electron (Obama won by 12%) Now they feel warm and fuzzy about Reid's numbers 9 months before the electron. These ratings, polls are just a good marketing gimmick.
Stephens Media, thank you for publishing a decent newspaper in Las Vegas. At least we have one that reports fairly and unbiased.
oh, and only a fool thinks the r-j is unbiased. just read some of sherm's blogs and you'll see he clearly has an agenda.
RJ stole "Best" from "Best Western" and "Best Foods" Mayonnaise
The actual article is pretty ho-hum, but these comments are GREAT!