A Nevada court has vacated a $2.15m default judgment levied against Philippine online gambling authority First Cagayan Leisure & Resort Corporation in a trademark infringement suit brought by casino operator Las Vegas Sands.

In March 2015, US District Judge James Mahan awarded Sands $2.15m in damages for the unauthorized use of its trademarks by multiple online casino sites, many of which held licenses issued by First Cagayan.

However, many of the sites in question operated under a series of shifting numbered domains and their domain registration filings contained blatantly erroneous information, making collection of this $2.15m from these operators all but impossible.

On the other hand, First Cagayan is a known entity with a verifiable address. But First Cagayan told Judge Mahan that it had only become aware of the lawsuit one week after the judgment was awarded last March – one year after Sands filed its original claim for compensation – when a reporter called First Cagayan for a comment on the judgment.