Casino company appeals ruling favoring Trumps in Atlantic City naming rights lawsuit

The owners of Atlantic City's Taj Mahal casino on Friday appealed a court order in favor of Donald and Ivanka Trump in a lawsuit seeking to strip the Trump name from the casino.

Trump Entertainment Resorts filed an appeal in U.S. District Court in Delaware of a Feb. 20 ruling enabling the Trumps to move forward with their lawsuit in state court.

The Trumps say Trump Entertainment Resorts allowed its two Atlantic City casinos to fall into disrepair. That, the Trumps say, damages their personal brand.

The company has stripped the Trump name from most of Trump Plaza, which closed on Sept. 16, but is fighting to keep using it at the Taj Mahal, its lone remaining casino.

In filing their lawsuit last August, the Trumps wrote, "The Trump name ... has become synonymous with the highest levels of quality, luxury, prestige and success."

Donald Trump does not run or control Trump Entertainment Resorts, which was formed after the Trump casino empire emerged from the second of its three bankruptcies. But he retains a 10 percent stake in it.

The real estate mogul and reality TV star is particularly sensitive to any negative associations of his name with Atlantic City. He has repeatedly said he has had no involvement for at least six years with the casinos that bear his name.

In response to the lawsuit, Trump Entertainment began stripping large neon letters spelling out "Trump" on the exterior of Trump Plaza in October. But the result might not be what Donald Trump had in mind: the word is still outlined in dirt or rust in many spots on the former casino facade.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is acquiring Trump Entertainment by swapping its debt that he owns in return for ownership of the company.

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Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC