Ocean filed a suit in Camden, New Jersey federal court Tuesday claiming its “Go for the Win” marketing campaign was taken by Live! without its consent.
Ocean said it spent $140,000 developing the slogan and another $1.5m to promote the marketing campaign in the South Jersey and Philadelphia region in June. Ocean promoted its slogan through media advertisements and on billboards.
One month later, Live! rolled out its “Let’s Go For the Win” campaign to drive traffic to the South Philadelphia casino.
"Indeed, Live! ran ‘Let's Go For The Win’ on a digital sign on the Atlantic City Boardwalk just a few doors down from Ocean's Casino Resort,” the lawsuit says.
Ocean filed an intent-to-use application for the slogan with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in May, later converted to a use application.
Ocean claims that Live! slogan was “made with full knowledge and conscious disregard of the rights of Ocean, and are willful, intentional and deliberate acts, made in bad faith with the intent to trade on the goodwill of the service mark of Ocean.”
Ocean claims the similarity of the slogans “is likely to cause confusion, mistake and/or deception” that the two properties are related. Ocean and Live! are separated by 60 miles and both attract customers from the same region.
Live!, which is owned and operated by The Cordish Companies, opened its doors in early February.
Ocean is one of Atlantic City’s newer casinos, having opened in 2012 as Revel. The casino was rebranded to its current name in 2018 upon being acquired by AC Ocean Walk.