Court rejects Cotai trademark again

The Court of Second Instance has rejected Las Vegas Sands Corp’s attempts to register “Cotai Strip Cotaiticketing” as a trademark. It is the fourth attempt by Sands to register a Cotai trademark that has been rejected by the court, after CotaiExpo, CotaiArena and CotaiTravel, the Portuguese-language newspaper Jornal Tribuna de Macau reports. The Court of Second Instance says both the expressions “Cotai” and “Cotai strip” stand for a specific area of the city where gaming, hotel and entertainment activities are being developed. The court sided with Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd who argued the expressions are too generic and fail to distinguish Las Vegas Sands from other companies that could produce or sell the same goods. Las Vegas Sands is the parent company of Macau-based Sands China Ltd.