Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Judge shuts down website in casino trademark lawsuit

The owner of the Stratosphere hotel-casino in Las Vegas is suing a publicly-traded Seattle company, alleging trademark infringement.

American Casino & Entertainment Properties LLC filed suit Wednesday in federal court in Las Vegas and on Friday a judge issued an order in the case requiring that the website at issue be taken down.

This was the third suit of its kind this week in Las Vegas involving gaming companies. Also filing trademark suits were Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Shuffle Master Inc.

American Casino claims in its suit that Marchex Sales Inc. has been involved in trademark infringement and ‘’cybersquatting,’’ which involves the registration of a website domain name that is similar to another party’s trademarked-name.

The suit says Marchex has been using a domain name called aceplay.com, which is for a website purporting to offer information about the Stratosphere and three other American Casino properties: The two Arizona Charlie’s in Las Vegas and the Aquarius in Laughlin.

Links on the site produce additional links – including links to competing hotel-casinos.

Wednesday’s lawsuit says the site also includes links to online gaming sites and that Marchex is believed to generate “click-through” revenue from the online casinos.

The suit says the website at issue infringed on American Casino’s “ace PLAY” loyalty club trademark.

American Casino “owns the exclusive right to use its ace PLAY trademark in connection with gaming services,” the company’s suit says.

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro issued a temporary restraining order requiring a domain name registrar to immediately remove or disable the aceplay.com domain name, place it on “hold and lock” and transfer it to the control of the court.

Marchex will have an opportunity to contest the domain name seizure during a July 3 hearing.

A request for comment was placed with Marchex.

Marchex Sales is a subsidiary of publicly-traded Marchex Inc., according to Marchex.

Marchex Inc. says it’s a leading mobile and online advertising company.

American Casino is represented in Wednesday’s suit by the Las Vegas office of the firm Lewis and Roca LLP.

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