Mattress producer Magniflex has responded to a trademark–infringement lawsuit filed by a Las Vegas hotel.
The Las Vegas Sun reported in early August that MGM Resorts International, which owns the Bellagio in Las Vegas, is suing Prato, Italy–based Magniflex, which produces a mattress it calls the Bellagio Lavender. Beds at the Bellagio resort hotel and casino are manufactured by Serta and guests can purchase a Bellagio–branded mattress at a store in the hotel or through its Web site.
In a statement, Marco Magni, Magniflex USA president, said the suit was being reviewed by the company’s attorneys, but that he believed it “was largely without merit.”
“We named our aromatherapy mattress the Bellagio Lavender after the city in the Lake Como region of northern Italy,” Magni said. “We are proud of our Italian heritage, and as a result, many of our mattresses are branded to pay homage to major cities and cultural centers in our country. This branding strategy is not unlike the marketing approaches taken by hundreds of global products, services and real estate properties that carry the name of famous international cities.”
Magniflex said it believes that its Bellagio Lavender mattress, which has unique features such as the infusion of pure lavender, can’t be confused with a “dramatically different product that happens to be named” after the hotel–casino property.
The Bellagio Lavender mattress was launched in Europe in 2009 and introduced in the United States this year. Magni said that, when naming the Bellagio Lavender mattress, Magniflex was unaware of the hotel’s line of home products or the pending trademark of Bellagio as a brand name.
