World Poker Tour Enterprises issued a press release earlier this week, indicating that it is strongly committed to defend it's brand against all forms of copyright and trademark infringement. Illustrative of it's commitment are seven recent intellectual property cases, which were all decided in favor of World Poker Tour Enterprises.
- Ultimate Poker Challenge TV Show – Copyright and trademark infringement for use of WPTE footage and for superimposing the Ultimate Poker Challenge mark over the World Poker Tour mark.
- 5thstreet.proboards39.com – Copyright infringement of four WPT episodes, posted for "Bit Torrent" downloads.
- Playworldpokertour.net – Trademark domain name infringement matter.
- WagerLogic Ltd. – Trademark infringement relating to four trademark applications filed in Canada (Interpoker World Poker Tour, Wagerlogic World Poker Tour, Interpoker World Poker Tournament, and Wagerlogic World Poker Tournament).
- Mid-Ohio Super Satellite No Limit Championship – Trademark infringement relating to the tournament being falsely billed as an official WORLD POKER TOUR satellite tournament.
- World Poker Productions, Inc. - Trademark infringement for use of a name and a poker-related website, and in connection with the sale of instructional poker videos.
- Wpt.cl and Worldpokertour.cl – Trademark domain name infringement in Chile.
Adam Pilska, the General Counsel of World Poker Tour Enterprises, said: "World Poker Tour is a globally recognizable brand, and we will aggressively police the misuse of our intellectual property. WPTE will protect its brands and goodwill to sustain the loyalty of our poker fans, television viewers and consumers."
Robert S. Gerber of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, acting as outside counsel to WPT Enterprises, added: "The company stands ready to pursue anyone, anywhere that attempts to misrepresent itself as affiliated with WPTE, trade on its valuable name and goodwill, violate its copyrighted material or other intellectual property, or otherwise harm its business interests."