Ruffin sues Advent in copyright dispute

Phil Ruffin's Ruffin Gaming LLC, owner of the New Frontier hotel-casino, sued casino designer Mark Advent's Advent Communications & Entertainment Inc. of Henderson in hopes of clearing a legal roadblock to Ruffin's planned new resort at the Frontier site on the Las Vegas Strip.

Ruffin last week announced plans to implode the New Frontier and replace it with a San Francisco-themed resort called "City by the Bay." This prompted Advent, who has been planning his own San Francisco-themed resort, to threaten to sue Ruffin.

In a U.S. District Court suit filed as a pre-emptive strike, Ruffin seeks a court declaration that Advent has no copyrights or trademarks to a San Francisco-themed resort.

Ruffin says the San Francisco concept has been in the public domain for years as evidenced by the Golden Gate hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas.

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