Georgia Lottery wins ruling in $5 million trademark dispute

Nov 21, 2011, 1:08 pm (16 comments)

Georgia Lottery

The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled against two men who sought $5 million in damages from the Georgia Lottery Corporation in a lawsuit over the "MONEYBAGS$" logo.

The suit was filed by George Kyle, who obtained a registered trademark for the "MONEYBAG$" logo and game in 1995, and Frank Mankovitch, whom Kyle had been given the exclusive right to market the game. The logo consisted of a velvet pouch containing wooden tiles.

From 1999 to 2002, the Georgia Lottery obtained approval to use Kyle's trademark for use in games, including scratch-off tickets. In 2005 and 2007, however, Scientific Games, which prints the tickets for the Georgia Lottery, did not seek Kyle's permission to use the logo again, the court's ruling said.

The Georgia Lottery went ahead with the game and grossed profits of $2.4 million in 2005 and $2.6 million in 2007. Kyle and Mankovitch filed a trademark infringement suit to get those profits.

But in a 4-3 ruling, the state Supreme Court on Monday said the Georgia Lottery is shielded from liability by sovereign immunity. The court also said that Kyle and Mankovitch had failed to legally establish trademark rights for their logo.

AJC

Comments

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

"...the state Supreme Court on Monday said the Georgia Lottery is shielded from liability by sovereign immunity."

There's a precedent for ya, "sovereign immunity."

Looks like the state can pretty much do whatever the hell they want from now on.

TnTicketlosers's avatarTnTicketlosers

I want to say something but I might get in trouble.

TnTicketlosers's avatarTnTicketlosers

Happy Thanksgiving !!!!!!    Turkey

dpoly1's avatardpoly1

Happy Thanksgiving !  US Flag Clinging to my Constitution, Guns & Religion !

Well, I'm from Pennsylvania & I guess I probably lost the winning ticket ............... Crazy

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Quote: Originally posted by TnTicketlosers on Nov 21, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving !!!!!!    Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving, TTL!

TheRightPrice

Quote: Originally posted by rdgrnr on Nov 21, 2011

"...the state Supreme Court on Monday said the Georgia Lottery is shielded from liability by sovereign immunity."

There's a precedent for ya, "sovereign immunity."

Looks like the state can pretty much do whatever the hell they want from now on.

"Sovereign Immunity" I don't like that word.

Last time I checked, the only person shielded by "Sovereign Immunity" was God and dead people.Confused

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Sounds like Georgia has no respect for Americans intellectual property same as China.

psykomo's avatarpsykomo

Quote: Originally posted by rdgrnr on Nov 21, 2011

"...the state Supreme Court on Monday said the Georgia Lottery is shielded from liability by sovereign immunity."

There's a precedent for ya, "sovereign immunity."

Looks like the state can pretty much do whatever the hell they want from now on.

      I Agree!     PSYKOMO would quote Mel Fisher   "TODAY's the DAY" 

         when I first started to post on Lottery Post.  L@@K at some of my ole

      post anddddddddddddddddddduuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwillseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

         After many post by psykomoooooooooooooooooooooo using Mel's "quote"

         the  Georgia Lottery put TODAY's the DAY on their commercial's and still

         use this "phrase" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      THIS PROVED 2ME the Georgia Lottery reads & read and still

         checks out the action here on THE LOTTERY POST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ThudJack-in-the-BoxThud

ChaosX's avatarChaosX

I had to look up sovereign immunity.  It's only meant to be applied to States and the Federal Gov't as far as I can tell. (Tribes as well)

CLETU$

What's the point of having Trademark laws if the courts are going to rule against you?

JAP69's avatarJAP69

Heres to Ga lottery. BOOOOOOOOOH,BOOOOOOOOOH,BOOOOOOOOOH,BOOOOOOOOOH

JAP69's avatarJAP69

Quote: Originally posted by TnTicketlosers on Nov 21, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving !!!!!!    Turkey

May just come a day when you could get in trouble for sying that.

Happy Thanksgiving TnTicketlosers.

LANTERN's avatarLANTERN

Quote: Originally posted by rdgrnr on Nov 21, 2011

"...the state Supreme Court on Monday said the Georgia Lottery is shielded from liability by sovereign immunity."

There's a precedent for ya, "sovereign immunity."

Looks like the state can pretty much do whatever the hell they want from now on.

it sounds like something that a king would say, like maybe King George of England and or Henry VIII of England.

Governments and monarchies are well known for being rotten.

Men in black from the government have been here many times and I always (so far) drive them of with shotguns, machine guns, grenades, biological, chemical and radiation weapons. next I am thinking about cold fusion bombs, oops! Did I say all of that? Sorry my computer is doing the typing all by itself, I think that it has developed an ego, it is kind of quasialive, the operating system has mutated, or maybe the stuff is just a typo of some kind, I better get inside one of my tunnels and take a trip to the Sahara for a while till things cool down some.

I have intercontinental gateways, as for transportation I use ground tunnels rocketships (500 miles per hour more or less).

Tenaj's avatarTenaj

Type"The court also said that Kyle and Mankovitch had failed to legally establish trademark rights for their logo."

Not taking sides with the state but with this against them too didn't help

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Quote: Originally posted by Tenaj on Nov 21, 2011

Type"The court also said that Kyle and Mankovitch had failed to legally establish trademark rights for their logo."

Not taking sides with the state but with this against them too didn't help

Good point Tenaj.

The state was apparently covering all the bases for a little overkill.

time*treat's avatartime*treat

Quote: Originally posted by CLETU$ on Nov 21, 2011

What's the point of having Trademark laws if the courts are going to rule against you?

... Allegedly ... "to promote the progress of science and useful arts"

U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8)

End of comments
Subscribe to this news story