A Texas clothing company has struck back in a lingering trademark infringement dispute with the Palazzo hotel-casino.
The Las Vegas Strip resort has been hit with trademark infringement litigation over its use of the word “palazzo” on items of clothing sells.
The plaintiff is Houston’s Palazzo Design Corp., the company sued in U.S. District Court in 2009 by the Las Vegas Sands Corp., owner of the Palazzo resort, for making threats of legal action.
Back then, the hotel-casino refuted the Texas company’s claim to exclusive rights to clothing bearing the word “palazzo.”
The 2009 lawsuit said Palazzo Design had offered to license or sell rights to “palazzo.” The Sands Corp. said it was threatened with legal action if it didn’t agree to pay for a transfer of rights. The company asked the court to declare that it had a right to use “palazzo” on the t-shirts and clothing it sells.
The suit was dismissed last year, however, after the Sands didn’t submit proof that it had served the defendant with required paperwork.
Palazzo Design insists in the new litigation filed in a Houston federal court that it has used “palazzo” on some of its clothing for 14 years. The Texas company claims that it has held a trademark on the use of the word for certain clothing items since 2007.
It says in its suit that it has informed the Las Vegas casino that it holds the federal mark and registration, but that the defendants use the mark anyway. According to the Las Vegas Sun, Palazzo Design claims the resort intends to “cause public confusion or deception, reverse confusion, benefit from the goodwill of the mark and/or interfere with Palazzo Design Corp.’s exclusive use of the mark.”
The Sands Corp. doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
Resource: Las Vegas Sun: “Texas company sues Las Vegas Sands over rights to ‘Palazzo’ name”: January 26, 2011
