Trademark dispute derails Crown Casino UK online bid

The publication of the Crown Casino trade mark in the UK Trade Marks Journal on 12 August marked the start of a two-month period for existing trade mark holders to raise potential objections, and Crown Bingo confirmed it had successfully challenged Crown Casino’s trade mark being approved for “the provision of gaming and casino services over a global computer network”.

Crown Bingo operations director Ian Erskine said: “Crown Bingo objected to Crown Casino going for online and offline use of the trade mark Crown Casino in the UK. They [Crown Casino] have pulled the online application on the back of the trade mark objection from Crown Bingo.”

However, said Erskine, his company would continue to challenge Crown Casino launching its brand offline in the UK, where it owns famous private gambling club Aspinall’s and half of the Aspers bricks 'n' mortar casino group, which operates three Aspers-branded casinos in the UK, due to expand to four in late 2011 with a new property at the Westfield Stratford shopping centre.

“We have spent many millions on building the Crown brand in UK, and we don’t see why Crown Casino should benefit from that. Practically no-one in the UK has heard of Crown Casino, unless they have been to the casino in Melbourne”, said Erskine.