Cosmopolitan sues to shut down bogus website

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas has filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming a Chinese website operator is operating a bogus version of the resort's website.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Tuesday, asks for an injunction requiring the domain name registrar, Jiangsu Bangning Science & Technology Co. Ltd., to remove or disable the misleading website.

The Cosmopolitan claims the website operator "is profiting or is intending to profit from the Cosmopolitan trademarks." The resort claims the fake website allows people to "book a room" and has a "become a member" function that allows users to input an email address and a password.

The Cosmopolitan's website is at cosmopolitanlasvegas.com. The operator of "newcosmopolitanlasvegas.com" hasn't been identified but is believed to be in China, according to the 33-page lawsuit.

A local phone number on the counterfeit website is for "a number of Chinese job listing sites that include references to positions available at [the Cosmopolitan]," the lawsuit said. When the number was called Wednesday, a recorded message said no one was available to answer, then the call was disconnected.

Attorneys at the Las Vegas office of Lewis and Roca, who represent the hotel, were unavailable for comment.