Monaco Monopoly

12/30/2008		Monaco Monopoly
Home History Games News Dictionary		As if the money, fame, tourism, and absolute branding associated with Monaco and the famous Monte Carlo land-based casino wasn’t enough, owners of the Casino de Monace and Casino de Monte Carlo now seem to be reaching their powerful fingers into the online casino pot, winning a case in regards to a particular domain name, and thus being granted ownership of the internet gambling site. The group, which full title is ‘La Société des Bains de Mer et du cercle des étrangers à Monaco,’ has won their lawsuit against Australian company Around Pacific in regards to a website titled Casino-Monaco-Gold.com and is now the proud new owner of said domain name. Their case claimed that the domain name infringed upon their rock-solid monopolistic ownership of all things both Monaco and gambling related, granted to them in 1863 by government authorization. The case, which was ruled by Debra J Stanek of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, was filed in October and disputed the website name which was purchased and registered by Around Pacific in 2006 through GoDaddy.com. La Société maintains that their hold on land gambling operations in the nation state of Monaco extends to trademark infringements, and accused Around Pacific of breaching the recognized symbols of their customer base by building on a related site name. The defense asserted that the website name was a simple combination of three common words- casino (a gambling place), Monaco (a location) and gold (a double entendre on the metal, as well as a reference to wealth.) The combination, they said, did not infringe upon the Monte-Carlo empire; though Stanek disagreed. She found that La Société’s evidence that (1) the domain name was confusingly similar to those marks over which the claimant has rights and (2) the defendant has no legitimate claims to said domain. As Around Pacific is based out of Australia, proving their rights to the word ‘Monaco’ proved too difficult. The question for the future is whether this case stands alone or was simply a test of power, with other domain names to fall under contention.

12/30/2008

Monaco Monopoly

As if the money, fame, tourism, and absolute branding associated with Monaco and the famous Monte Carlo land-based casino wasn’t enough, owners of the Casino de Monace and Casino de Monte Carlo now seem to be reaching their powerful fingers into the online casino pot, winning a case in regards to a particular domain name, and thus being granted ownership of the internet gambling site.

The group, which full title is ‘La Société des Bains de Mer et du cercle des étrangers à Monaco,’ has won their lawsuit against Australian company Around Pacific in regards to a website titled Casino-Monaco-Gold.com and is now the proud new owner of said domain name. Their case claimed that the domain name infringed upon their rock-solid monopolistic ownership of all things both Monaco and gambling related, granted to them in 1863 by government authorization. The case, which was ruled by Debra J Stanek of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, was filed in October and disputed the website name which was purchased and registered by Around Pacific in 2006 through GoDaddy.com.

La Société maintains that their hold on land gambling operations in the nation state of Monaco extends to trademark infringements, and accused Around Pacific of breaching the recognized symbols of their customer base by building on a related site name. The defense asserted that the website name was a simple combination of three common words- casino (a gambling place), Monaco (a location) and gold (a double entendre on the metal, as well as a reference to wealth.) The combination, they said, did not infringe upon the Monte-Carlo empire; though Stanek disagreed. She found that La Société’s evidence that (1) the domain name was confusingly similar to those marks over which the claimant has rights and (2) the defendant has no legitimate claims to said domain. As Around Pacific is based out of Australia, proving their rights to the word ‘Monaco’ proved too difficult.

The question for the future is whether this case stands alone or was simply a test of power, with other domain names to fall under contention.