So MGM doesn’t like the little guy piggybacking off the giant…Read more. Recently, MGM Mirage filed a lawsuit with the U.S District Court against six individuals who allegedly were infringing upon the trademarks of MGM through deceptive online trade practices. According to the lawsuit the defendants intended to misdirect consumers looking for MGM Mirage information and blah blah blah. Have casinos gotten soft this day in age?
What about all those movies we’ve all seen? Back in the day, wasn’t this type of an offense against a major casino handled a little differently a little more discretely? From all the old time casino movies I’ve seen, this matter would have never made it to the authorities. Imagine, a few hired goons, a couple tinted out limos and the owner of the MGM franchise show up to these guy’s door with a baseball bat, a blow torch and a couple of ball point hammers…Times sure have changed.
Indeed times have changed. Virtual attacks have become common place, particularly when it comes to domain names, just ask Bodog about that, at least they got theirs back, others aren’t so fortunate.
The attacks on domains can be damaging to a company and are the subject of heated judicial debates. In Kentucky, a major decision is expected from the Supreme court in March regarding the attempted seizure of 141 domain names by Governor Steven Beshear.
Many large companies have relationships with smaller companies or affiliates, but the trend on the horizon will be much different. With the possibility of the legalization and regulation of online poker and online gambling as a whole, domain name piracy and consumer misdirection could become a common crime.
With so many consumers looking for sites, it would be relatively easy for dishonest entities to piggyback off larger companies, by purposely misdirecting would be clients from large popular sites to their own.
It will certainly be very difficult to first, police this sort of crime and second prove the intention of the accused party. The future battle front certainly may be a virtual one and the battles will be messy. It’s easy to foresee that in the very near future, new laws and legislation may have to be enacted to face this issue.
I can’t help but think that if casinos handled their personal business the way it’s portrayed in the movies they wouldn’t have this problem. Who would dare cross the casino giant if they new they’d be swimming with the fishes, or limping around without knee caps?
What happened to the good old days?
