Owners of the Plaza Hotel in New York City weren't malicious toward owners of the Plaza hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas when the former group sought to build a hotel of the same name on the Strip, a judge ruled.

The ruling Tuesday by Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez means Tamares Las Vegas Properties, owners of the local Plaza, won't get punitive damages from Elad Group, owners of the New York Plaza as part of a trademark dispute.

But the question of whether Elad can use the Plaza name in Las Vegas over Tamares' objection will be left to a jury.

The ruling is part of a court case in which Tamares sued Elad alleging that a proposed Plaza on the former site of the New Frontier would infringe on the trademark of the downtown Plaza.

A spokesman for Elad says company officials believe the ruling reinforces the strength of their overall case to use the Plaza name on the Strip.

A spokesman for Tamares did not respond to a request for comment.

NEW YORK

Buffett will invest in Goldman Sachs

Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc. got a much-needed seal of approval Tuesday from billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. agreed to invest $5 billion in the investment bank by way of a purchase of preferred stock, Goldman announced after the stock market closed Tuesday. Berkshire also will get warrants to buy as much as 10 percent of Goldman's common stock at a discount price of $5 billion.

Goldman said it also would raise $5 billion in a public offering of common shares.

The legendary investor's move amounts to a huge show of support for Goldman.

"You've got the most renowned investor of the 20th century putting money into Goldman," said Scott Schubert, an investment banker at Jefferies Putnam Lovell in New York. "It's a vote of confidence in Goldman and in Wall Street in general."

DETROIT

General Motors will close plant, sell brand

General Motors Corp.'s treasurer said Wednesday that the automaker is planning to put its Strasbourg, France, manufacturing operation and its Hummer truck brand up for sale, and it may announce more asset sales later this year.

Company Treasurer Walter Borst said in a slide presentation at the Deutsche Bank Leveraged Finance Conference that the company expects to distribute marketing materials for both operations in October.

The slides posted on GM's Web site Wednesday say the assets under review are worth $2 billion to $4 billion. The presentation also says GM continues to review other asset sales and will make more announcements in the fourth quarter.