Vegas strip club fights in court over animal names
Spearmint Rhino has been at the top of the topless scene in Vegas since 1999, before most of his current featured staff were even born. Now, a new competitor is discovering just how territorial the original strip club, with its bubblegum-flavored "Pachyderm" name, can be as it attacks its brand.
Spearmint Rhino is suing Mint Hippo for trademark infringement.
Damages were not specified in Rhino's civil lawsuit, filed March 19 in U.S. District Court in Nevada. Rhino just wants to force a name change.
The Hippo Hotel moved in 2019 to the former site of another famous Las Vegas strip club, Olympic Gardens. (OG’s, also known as the one that closed three years ago.)
In the lawsuit, Rhino claims that it has "used its name for adult cabaret services since October 15, 1992" and that its trademark "is well-known and recognized throughout the world and in the United States as a symbol of quality adult venues. "Entertainment Services" and that Hippo's trademarks "impair the distinctiveness and cause dilution by obscuring (and damaging) its trademarks." "
Another animal?
Hippo founder and CEO Alan Chang asked that the lawsuit be dismissed out of court. In a statement to Page Six, he called the actions "ridiculous," noting that "the strip club wars have begun!"
One small detail that may have hurt Zhang's case is that he served as Spearmint Rhino's director of business development from 2007 to 2014.
Instead, however, Zhang could prove that he “did not” steal his former employer’s name—at least not directly.
He is based on the comedy series "South Park". In 2003, the animated star helped a fictional strip club called Peppermint Hippo bust a local meth ring. They returned in 2006.
“We just thought it was hilarious,” Chang told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2022.
Hippo will span 27,000 square feet and feature "state-of-the-art sound and lighting technology, VIP amenities, podcast studio, speakeasy and 24-hour entertainment," according to a press release.
Although female strip club employees often claim that size doesn't matter, the Rhino is larger at 37,500 square feet.
It still attracts celebrities, including Kim Kardashian and Odell Beckham Jr., who were spotted together at the Rhino in February, but the Hippo recently That aspect went above and beyond, hosting Usher, Mike Tyson, and Odell Beckham Jr. as guests.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Brenda Weksler is scheduled to hear the case in February 2025. Rhino requested a jury trial.
"In the wild, hippos and rhinos live side by side," Zhang told Page Six. “Why not Vegas?”
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Source: www.casino.org
