New York Plaza declared legal in Las Vegas

October 08, 2008

The owners of the famous Plaza hotel in New York are smiling, as a jury ruled this month that the hotel name may legally and officially be used for a planned $5 billion casino-resort to be situated at the Las Vegas Strip. The owners of the existing low-budget Plaza Hotel and Casino on the strip, the Tamares Group, are not quite as happy about the outcome of the jury ruling, however.

The Plaza owned by the Tamares Group is over 37 years old, and the group also owns another three casinos in the downtown area of Las Vegas. The group is not sure how it will deal with the situation, and Harry Braunstein, a lawyer speaking on behalf of the group, says, “We’re disappointed. We’re studying our options, and, candidly, we’re somewhat stunned in disbelief.”

The trial regarding the usage of the Plaza hotel name lasted three weeks, and lawyers speaking on behalf of the El-Ad Group that owns the existing Plaza Hotel in New York stated that the property owned by the Tamares Group had already been renamed several times, including names such as Jackie Gaughan’s Plaza Downtown and the Union Plaza. The jury based its ruling largely on the fact that the Plaza in Las Vegas had not properly protected its right to the trademark.

President of El-Ad, Miki Naftali, stated that their company rights to the Plaza Hotel in New York name date back for over 100 years. Last year El-Ad purchased 36 acres of property on the Las Vegas strip, and the company intends to build an adaptation of the New York accommodation, the Plaza Hotel in New York, that will consist of seven towers and 6,700 hotel rooms, and is expected to cost at least $5 billion, which is intended to be open by 2012.