The luxury French fashion house Louis Vuitton is suing Maryland Live! Casino & Hotel over two promotional campaigns that Louis Vuitton says infringes on its trademarks and weakens its brand.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court of Maryland, says the Hanover casino “palmed off their goods as those of Louis Vuitton,” which falsely created an impression that the two brands were linked.
It details two marketing campaigns from earlier this year that Louis Vuitton says amount to trademark counterfeiting, trademark infringement, trademark dilution and false association.
The complaint details an April marketing campaign where casino visitors could receive a “luxury bag collection” that “copies” multiple designs trademarked by Louis Vuitton, according to the lawsuit.
The company included an image in the complaint that shows its monogram “LV” in the middle of a pattern with three different flower designs.
Next to that image is a photo of one of the bags Louis Vuitton accuses Maryland Live! of distributing, which shows nearly identical flower designs and a “Live!” logo where the “LV” would have appeared.
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Doing that was “particularly brazen,” attorneys for Louis Vuitton wrote in the complaint, alleging it was done to “effectively link” the brand with the casino.
“This was done with one specific and intentional purpose — to falsely convey to the consuming public that Louis Vuitton and Defendants’ Live Casino are affiliated," the complaint reads.
The lawsuit also includes images of products from “The Art of Luxury” campaign by the casino, comparing them to authentic Louis Vuitton products.
The four different products, a handbag, a backpack, a tote bag and a toiletry case, feature “color combinations, product shapes and design aesthetics” that were intended to mimic the authentic products, the complaint says.
Louis Vuitton says it sent a cease-and-desist letter to the casino in April. And Louis Vuitton said that on April 17, after sending the cease-and-desist, the casino “indicated by email” that it would stop distributing the products.
But “weeks later,” according to the lawsuit, the casino launched a campaign called “Endless Elegance” that promised visitors the chance to win items from “a luxury French collection,” and showed images of “purportedly authentic” Louis Vuitton products.
Some promotional material for that campaign is still online as of Thursday morning, including on the casino’s Instagram account.
The lawsuit seeks millions in monetary damages and asks that the casino deliver the products for destruction and that it conduct a “corrective” advertising campaign nothing that the products are not authentic.
Louis Vuitton was founded in 1854 and is the only distributor of its products in the United States. The company did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Live! Casinos are owned by The Cordish Companies, which is also named in the suit as a defendant. Neither responded immediately to a request for comment. The Banner leases office space from Cordish.
The Live! Casino and Hotel is next to Arundel Mills Mall, just southwest of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
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