Domain case court finds in favour of MGM
Casino operator to be awarded a cumulative US$300k from PokerSons and Roberto Ciamillo.
The court presiding over MGM’s domain name case has ruled in favour of the casino operator, awarding it a combined US$300,000 from two alleged domain squatters.
CircusCircusPoker.com domain holder Roberto Ciamillo has been ordered to pay statutory damages of $100,000, with PokerSons – holder of the luxorpoker.com and MGMpoker.com sites – charged twice as much, with the court citing the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act with regard to both parties.
Following the rulings the relevant domains will also be returned to MGM, with Judge Philip M Pro ruling that the domains were registered “With a bad faith intent to profit therefrom.”
The lawsuit was initially filed in early December 2011, with trademark infringement allegations surrounding the aforementioned three sites as well as others such as ariapoker.com and excaliburpoker.com.
Adam Majewski, owner of excaliburpoker.com, filed a motion to dismiss later that month, however it was denied and MGM was granted a motion for injunction in January.
An agreement has been reached with one domain holder, Evan Krentzman, who had previously laid claim to the bellagioonlinepoker.com and bellagiopokeronline.com.
In October last year, MGM entered into an agreement with bwin.party which could bring about a new online poker offering as and when federal US egaming legislation is passed.