Trademark dispute erupts between LV nightclub operators

A Las Vegas nightclub owner has filed a lawsuit against a competitor alleging trademark infringement.

Manhattan West LLC, owner of the Piranha Night Club and 8 1/2 Ultra Lounge, filed suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas against Krave Entertainment LLC, Phantom Entertainment LLC and other defendants associated with Krave nightclub.

Piranha and 8 1/2 complained in the lawsuit that the defendants in December 2010 registered the website domain name piranhalv.com.

That domain name redirects website users to the Krave website.

“Plaintiff has for many years done business under the names Piranha Night Club and 8 1/2 Ultra Lounge and has obtained common law trademark ownership and rights in these names,” the lawsuit says. “Plaintiff has further spent enormous amounts of time and money developing and marketing these brands in the local market and national market in print, broadcast media and the Internet.

“By registering the domain name piranhalv.com, the defendants were and are attempting to trade on the goodwill and business of the plaintiff."

Manhattan West LLC accuses the defendants of trademark infringement, violating the federal Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and unfair and fraudulent business practices

Krave, Piranha and 8 1/2 are all prominent local gay clubs, and the lawsuit claims the Krave defendants registered the Piranha website domain name as part of a scheme “to wrongfully create the false belief among countless prospective, current and past customers that the plaintiff’s business is either merged with the defendants’ business or is out of business.”

A request for comment on the allegations was placed with Krave.

The lawsuit says one of the defendants, Phantom Entertainment, became the owner and operator of Krave when it purchased substantially all of the assets of Krave Entertainment out of the 2010 Krave bankruptcy .

Manhattan West filed its own bankruptcy last month. Another gay club associated with Manhattan West, Gipsy, is not part of the bankruptcy.

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