Gold Strike Poker Facing Trademark Infringement Lawsuit

One of the sites that rose up as a result of the April 15th indictments was Gold Strike Poker.  The site is a subscription based poker site that offers free to play poker games.  Now, the company is facing a trademark infringement lawsuit over the use of the Gold Strike name.

Gold Strike Poker may see the mine shaft closed.

MGM Resorts International filed a lawsuit last Thursday in Las Vegas federal court against both WorldPokerRewardsClub.com Company and John George of Blaine, WA claiming trademark infringement on the Gold Strike name.

MGM Resorts claims that using the Gold Strike name infringes on their trademark for their Gold Strike Hotel and Casino in both Tunica, MS and Jean, NV.  The suit also claimed that they asked the site to give up the sites goldstrikepoker.com and goldstrikepoker.net, but the company told them that they would have to buy the sites.

The owners of Gold Strike Poker filed a request with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in July to cover both Gold Strike Poker and Goldstrikepoker.com.  MGM claims that the use of the name was “a fraudulent attempt to establish some rights in the marks.”  Also, “By registering and using the goldstrikepoker.com and goldstrikepoker.net domain names, defendants were and are attempting to frustrate or divert Internet traffic intended for the trademark owner and its Gold Strike hotel casinos.”

MGM Resorts may actually have a legitimate case in this one due to the fact that the casino has been a long standing entity.  If the casino did not have a long standing poker room, especially in Tunica, MS, they may not have a leg to stand on.  If one does a Google search for gold strike poker, the second result is for the Tunica poker room.
Interestingly enough, the suit claims that John George agreed to change the name to GoldRushPoker.net.  The site GoldRushPoker.net does indeed exist, thus possibly giving MGM Resorts even more leverage.  It appears that this may be an attempt by George to get money for cybersquatting   Don’t be surprised if this one gets settled out of court.

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