An exotic car showroom, merchandise gallery and restaurant at the Palazzo resort in Las Vegas are accused of trademark infringement in a lawsuit filed by manufacturer Lamborghini.
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Attorneys for the Italian car maker filed suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas against the companies that operate Dal Toro Exotic Car Showroom, Dal Toro Merchandise Gallery and Dal Toro Il Ristorante Italiano in the resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
Lorenzo Barracco, manager of the businesses being sued, said Thursday he was unaware of the lawsuit and said it sounded frivolous.
But the attorneys at the Las Vegas law firm that filed the suit, Akerman Senterfitt, aren’t known for filing frivolous suits. They typically engage in complex financial litigation.
Wednesday’s lawsuit says Lamborghini, with its distinctive bull-in-shield logo, has been harmed by Dal Toro’s unauthorized use of Lamborghini’s trademarks, name and logo.
“Brashly, defendants prominently display a large and striking Lamborghini bull-in-shield protected design mark at the entrance of defendants’ premises and a Lamborghini protected type mark within defendants’ exotic car showroom,’’ the lawsuit says.
It also claims Dal Toro has been designing, manufacturing, advertising and selling apparel and accessory products bearing logos and other identifiers “that are studied imitations of the Lamborghini trademarks.”
“Defendants’ advertisement, promotion and sale of the knockoff products is part of a sophisticated and elaborate scheme to target Lamborghini, to create products that are similar in appearance to well-known Lamborghini products, and to trade upon the goodwill and reputation associated with Lamborghini and its high quality, distinctive product lines, including by deliberately misleading the public and the trade as to the authenticity, source, affiliation or sponsorship of defendants’ operations and products,” Lamborghini’s lawsuit says.