Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011 | 2:05 a.m.
The fast-growing Ace Hotel chain says a Las Vegas-based casino operator is infringing on its trademarks by calling its gamblers rewards programs “ace PLAY” and “ace STAY.”
Seattle-based Ace has hotels there and in Portland, Ore., Palm Springs, Calif., and Manhattan.
Ace owns the Ace trademark for hotel services and has its own rewards program called the “A-List.”
On Jan. 21, Ace’s parent company, Modern Housing LLC of Seattle, petitioned the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the “ace PLAY” trademark issued July 27 to American Casino and Entertainment Properties LLC of Las Vegas.
American Casino has four hotel-casinos in Southern Nevada: The Stratosphere and two Arizona Charlie’s in Las Vegas and the Aquarius in Laughlin.
The Ace Hotel petition said it’s been using the Ace trademark since 1999 for hotel and related services and that “through its substantial sales, its significant promotional and advertising efforts and the high quality of its services, has built up valuable goodwill in its Ace mark.”
Ace Hotel charged that the American Casino “ace PLAY” mark “is virtually identical to and/or confusingly similar with” the Ace Hotel mark and “covers services which are identical, similar and/or related.”
American Casino and Entertainment Properties (ACEP) responded Wednesday, suing Modern Housing in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.
Attorneys for American Casino said in the lawsuit that besides seeking to cancel the “ace PLAY” trademark, Modern Housing has also opposed American Casino’s planned use of an “ace STAY” trademark.
“Because the acronym of ACEP includes the word ‘ace’ and the term ‘ace’ is closely associated with gaming in Las Vegas as the name of the highest value playing card, ACEP decided to call its players club by the name ACEPLAY and decided to call its hotel guest club by the name ACESTAY,” says the American Casino lawsuit.
“Consumers are not likely to be confused between Modern Housing’s ACE mark for hotels and ACEP’s ACEPLAY and ACESTAY marks for rewards programs and related goods and services when used in connection with ACEP’s properties,” the lawsuit says.
“Modern Housing’s ACE mark for hotels is not famous within the meaning of the Federal Trademark Dilution Act,” charged the lawsuit, which seeks a declaratory judgment backing ACEP’s position.
The suit was filed by attorneys Michael McCue and Jonathan Fountain of the Las Vegas office of the law firm Lewis and Roca LLP.
This isn’t the first trademark lawsuit over the word “ACE” in Las Vegas.
Last year, bus operator the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada quit using the names ACE Gold Line, ACExpress and ACE Green Line after it was sued by longtime trademark owner Ace Cab.
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