“…The suit also seeks Bhatin to change the hotel’s domain name, hotelmorgantown.com, and to file a cancellation of the Hotel Morgantown trade name with the Secretary of State’s office…”
Officials of an 86-year-old Morgantown hotel are crying foul over a nearby hotel’s name, saying the similar name violates its longstanding common law trademark. Filed April 26 by The Hotel Morgan Company against Himanshu Bhatin and his company Sahaj Morgantown LLC, the suit seeks Bhatin to change the name of his Hotel Morgantown to one that does not contain any variation of the words “hotel,” “Morgan” and “Morgantown.”
Hotel Morgan opened in 1925 as a “premier full-service lodging, restaurant and banquet facility,” the suit states, and has gained “regional and national recognition and prominence.”
Bhatin, a New Jersey resident, opened Hotel Morgantown & Conference Center in 2011.Â
“Although Hotel Morgan is not registered as a state or federal service mark, it has acquired ‘secondary meaning,’ and is lawfully entitled to the protection afforded to common law trademarks under various state, federal and international laws, conventions and policies.”
