Web site owner denies New York-New York allegations

Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009 | 5:48 p.m.

NY-NY sues Calif. man alleging trademark infringement (11-9-09)

See New York-New York's suit

Headlines from the Vegas gaming industry

A Web site owner on Wednesday denied allegations in a lawsuit that his www.newyorknewyork.com Internet site was infringing on the trademarks of the New York-New York hotel-casino in Las Vegas.

Ronnie Katzin of Tarzana, Calif., who was sued by the hotel-casino last week, said that after learning of the lawsuit he removed from the Web site an image of the Las Vegas hotel.

Katzin said he obtained the Web site name in about 1996, before the Las Vegas property opened. He obtained the domain name as part of a plan for a site promoting New York City, he said.

The name relates to the Frank Sinatra song, not the Las Vegas hotel, he said.

"I have a passion for creating a New York City site," Katzin said.

Assertions by New York-New York hotel-casino in the lawsuit that it contacted the domain name owner with its concerns don't apply to him, but to a company that hijacked the name and used it between 2004 and 2006, Katzin said.

Katzin said that prior to learning of the lawsuit, he was unaware the Las Vegas hotel and its owner MGM Mirage had a problem with the site.

"I had no knowledge this was something they were frowning upon," he said.

He felt he was doing the New York-New York hotel-casino a favor by including the hotel image on the site, since many users of the site reached it mistakenly thinking they were going to the hotel-casino's official site, Katzin said.

Katzin said that the image of the hotel-casino linked to a room-booking engine operated by Expedia's Interactive Affiliate Network. He said that since Interactive Affiliate Network has a deal to sell MGM Mirage rooms, the link was authorized.

He added that an MGM Mirage official, whom he refused to identify, had at one point said such a link would be authorized once the Interactive Affiliate Network started booking rooms for MGM Mirage.

Katzin's Web site on Wednesday still allowed users to book rooms throughout the country. In Las Vegas, properties showing up on a search for Dec. 2 included those owned by both MGM Mirage and competitors.

Discussion: 6 comments so far…

By Lenny_V

11/11/09 at 6:24 p.m.

Suggest removal

Okay so the website owner shouldn't be allowed to profit from the use of their image etc but he's entitled to do whatever he wants with his property (the web address).

The MGM DOESN'T OWN THE PHRASE "NEW YORK-NEW YORK". Who do they think they are? Throw this arrogance out of court!
By jgmiller

11/12/09 at 7:06 a.m.

Suggest removal

More than likely MGM wants the domain name and approached him at some point in the past to buy it and he asked for $1M (people always ask for $1M for good names). By suing him they hope to force him to settle the case by letting them buy the name for something significantly less than what he originally wanted. Companies do it all the time to get prime domains.

They're using the legal system as a bargaining chip.
By thegoofs

11/12/09 at 4:25 p.m.

Suggest removal

This guy didn't ask for any money, if he had, MGM would have put it in their suit (I have read it).

The big bad MGM is only going after the little guy from the looks of it to me.
By vegaslee

11/12/09 at 8:45 p.m.

Suggest removal

He used their legal trademark to make money.

They have to protect their trademark, that is the law.

He had not right to use it without their consent. Pretty simple really.

There are 1000's of people on the net trying to make a buck off others trademarks and hard work. It is a good thing that MGM is stepping up to help stop it.

If it was your trademark you would do the same.
By thegoofs

11/13/09 at 4:42 p.m.

Suggest removal

@Vegaslee - He was using the name to sell rooms/shows/tours in New York city, that was the emphasis of the site. That was completely within his rights. Where things went south was when he put a link on the site for NYNY Hotel Casino in Vegas as well, something he did merely as a convenience to visitors that thought thought they were going to get thew Vegas hotel, and got a site promoting New York city instead.

MGM is taking advantage of the situation, pure and simple.