Mark one in the “W” column for Sheldon Adelson against online poker. Before you panic, though, and worry that the Las Vegas Sands CEO is making inroads in the United States in trying to get online poker banned completely, know that this victory has nothing to do with the U.S. Last summer, Adelson and his gambling company filed a lawsuit against a number of Chinese websites, claiming trademark infringement, as the sites used the Sands logo. Last week, US District Judge James Mahan ruled in favor of Las Vegas Sands.
To review what was going on in the case, 35 Chinese internet gambling websites used the Sands logo for their own purposes without prior permission from the company. They all also used an image of Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands Hotel, a property owned by the Las Vegas Sands Corp. It was all an extremely blatant ripoff, and as much as we don’t like Sheldon Adelson ‘round these parts, we don’t blame him for wanting those sites shut down.
As you can see from the following list, the website URL’s were completely nondescript; the sites were all exactly alike and were likely launched together to try to grab as much web traffic as possible in the shortest amount of time:
368.com
8227.com
9770.com
22v.com
vns000.com
vns002.com
vns003.com
vns004.com
vns005.com
vns006.com
vns007.com
vns008.com
vns009.com
vn008.com
666cp.com
xjs00.com
xjs11.com
xjs22.com
xjs33.com
xjs44.com
xjs55.com
xjs66.com
xjs77.com
xjs88.com
xjs99.com
vns95500.com
vns95511.com
vns95522.com
vns95533.com
vns95544.com
vns95555.com
vns95566.com
vns95577.com
vns95588.com
vns95599.com
It appears that all of them have been taken down. Hopefully, they haven’t disappeared with players’ money, but I would be shocked if they didn’t.
The Las Vegas Sands Corp. was perturbed not only because its logo was used without permission, but also because its use runs completely counter to Adelson’s efforts to eradicate online gambling. In filing the suit, the company explained its concerns:
The use of Plaintiff’s marks was no accident. The website is clearly intended to refer to Plaintiff’s world famous resort hotel, as it shows a skyline view of Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore.
The SANDS Marks are embodiments of the substantial goodwill and excellent reputation Las Vegas Sands Corp. and its predecessors have developed since 1952 as a premier provider of entertainment and casino services. As a result of the Defendants’ blatant exploitation of Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s trademarks without Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s consent, Las Vegas Sands Corp. has lost control over the SANDS Mark.
This loss of control over its goodwill and reputation is irreparable and Las Vegas Sands Corp. cannot be adequately compensated by an award of money damages alone.
Nevertheless, Sands sought compensatory, punitive, consequential, and statutory damages. It also went for a “temporary, preliminary, and permanent injunction” to stop the sites from the continued use of its brand as a means to lure players. The judge did award Sands $2 million damages and issued a permanent injunction against the sites.
It is highly unlikely, however, that Sands will ever see that money (as if Adelson needs it), as the owners paid for a privacy protection service when registering the domain names, preventing the public from ever seeing the registrant’s identifying information.