Trademark suit filed against Hotel California in Austintown
The owner of an Austintown hotel and lounge is denying trademark infringement allegations filed one week before an open house is scheduled to show off the venue.
A hearing is scheduled in U.S. District Court in Youngstown on Wednesday that seeks to stop Sebastian Rucci from using the name Hotel California for a business at Route 46 and Interstate 80.
The hotel is located where Rucci formerly operated the attached lounge as the Go Go Cabaret, until state agents shut it down in 2011, saying it no longer had a valid liquor permit.
The building has been undergoing renovations and is being renamed the Club Cali lounge and Hotel California. Operators of the club are still trying to obtain a liquor permit.
Although the name Hotel California became well known though a popular Eagles song in 1972, Ocean Avenue Properties has filed a civil lawsuit claiming that it has had the rights to the trademark since 1997. The lawsuit says that Ocean Avenue Properties has operated a Hotel California in Santa Monica, California since that year, and recently has begun to franchise and license the brand to other hotel locations in the state of California.
Ocean Avenue says their attorneys have sent Rucci two cease and desist requests in July and August. The suit says that there has been no response to either request.
The lawsuit says that after the cease and desist letters were sent, Rucci filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office seeking to register the “Hotel California” trademark. The suit further states that Rucci signed a declaration acknowledging that he believes that no other person has the right to use the trademark.
The lawsuit says that when Rucci and others operated the Go Go Cabaret, they were charged with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, money laundering, perjury and two counts of promoting prostitution. The charges were dismissed or successfully appealed.
The civil suit accuses Rucci of trademark infringement, trademark counterfeiting and violating Ohio's deceptive trade regulations.
In the lawsuit, Ocean Properties alleges that it has been irreparably harmed by the use of the Hotel California name. It seeks more than $500,000 in damages and a court order preventing the use of the name Hotel California or Hotel Cali.
Rucci emailed a response to wfmj.com, characterizing the allegations as coming from “a guy with one small hotel in Santa Monica, California, located 2,411 miles from our hotel in Austintown.”
Rucci says that his business owns the sole trade mark to use the name Hotel California in Ohio that flows from actual use of the name, and not through registration of the name.
The statement from Rucci goes on to say that his business does not seek to capitalize on the name of the hotel in Santa Monica, which he says has not acquired any prominence.
Rucci claims that a search of the internet will confirm that hundreds of independent hotels are named Hotel California in the world. A search by 21 News turned up internet sites advertising businesses named Hotel California in Palo Alto, California; Palm Springs, California; Baja, Mexico; Zurich, Switzerland and Paris, France.
Word of the lawsuit comes one week before an open house is scheduled in Austintown for the Hotel California. An advertisement in the Vindicator says the event will offer food, soft drinks, prizes and entertainment.
Hotel California and other businesses in the area of Canfield Niles Road and the interstate expect to capitalize on the influx of people playing slots at the recently opened Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course.
The Ohio Department of Liquor Control has scheduled a hearing on a liquor permit for Club Cali on November 6.
