Atlantic City's Ocean Casino sues Live! Casino Philadelphia for using similar slogan

Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City is suing Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia under accusations of unfair competition by using a similar slogan to its “Go for the Win” sales pitch.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Camden federal court by parent entity AC Ocean Walk LLC, says Ocean Casino Resort filed an intent-to-use application for the phrase with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on May 6 later converted to a use application. This gives Ocean priority rights and usage of the tagline.

Ocean Casino launched its “Go for the Win” marketing campaign on June 22, spending more than $1.5 million to promote it in the South Jersey-Philadelphia area. Allegedly, prior to launching, the company and its advertising agency spent several months and further $140,000 developing the campaign, reports app..

♠️ Go for the game.
♦️ Go for the hit.
♣️ Go for the win.

Visit https://t.co/KcPqqVT0Yj to book your escape. Go to Ocean. Go for the win! pic.twitter.com/ejZ3sdTxJb

— Ocean Casino Resort (@TheOceanAC) August 28, 2021

In July, Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia, owned by The Cordish Companies, launched its own campaign, featuring a similar slogan: “Let’s Go for the Win”. Opened in February on Packer Avenue on a $700 million budget, the integrated resort has used the slogan in ads on TV and websites, according to the lawsuit, as well as a digital sign on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, “just a few doors down from Ocean’s Casino Resort.”

According to Ocean, “Go for the Win” is a “unique and distinctive service mark” of the company. The suit contends Live! used the slogan “without the consent of Ocean as part of a deliberate plan to trade on Ocean’s Go For The Win service mark.” The lawsuit claims Live! had been notified regarding the similarity, yet continued to use the slogan as a “willful, intentional, and deliberate act made in bad faith.”

“Defendant Live!’s unauthorized use of a confusingly similar service mark interferes with Ocean’s ability to control the nature and quality of the services Ocean provides under its GO FOR THE WIN service mark,” describes the litigation. Moreover, the use of the similar slogan by the Philadelphia casino places “the valuable reputation and good will of Ocean in the hands of defendant Live!, over which Ocean has no control.”

Ocean Casino Resort is seeking a cease and desist order to bar Live! from using the slogan, as well as enforcing the casino to destroy all marketing material utilizing the similar phrase. Additionally, Ocean is demanding damages for an unspecified figure, and seeks the Philadelphia casino covers the cost of its lawsuit.

In August 2020, Ocean was also involved in a lawsuit, although that time as a defendant: MGM-owned Borgata accused the casino of hiring its top marketing executives to use secret details, including information on Borgata’s top customers, in an effort to “cripple” its casino operation.