Kanye means business.
Days after Kanye West’s lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter to the anonymous coders behind Coinye, the team has now filed a trademark infringement lawsuit.
“Defendants have willfully and admittedly traded upon the goodwill and notoriety of Kanye West, one of the most famous entertainers and brand names in the world,” claims the suit filed in Manhattan federal court, which seeks unspecified damages.
The suit refers to COINYE as a “crypto-currency” because it exists only as computer code, not in any physical form.
“In interviews with the press, defendants brazenly admit that they adopted the marks COINYE WEST, COINYE and COYE to directly associate their newly minted crypto-currency with Mr. West,” the suit states.
“With each day that passes, Mr. West’s reputation is irreparably harmed … Consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Mr. West is the source of these digital coins,” the suit alleges.
To demonstrate the problem, the suit lists 18 tweets posted by consumers about the new currency.
Digital coin exchange sites 0DayCoins.com, Coinye-Exchange.com and Newchg.com are named as defendants in the suit, along with Amazon.com, which provides web hosting services.
Somehow I don’t believe the Coinye creators care. I think they just wanted the attention. Too bad that may come at a pretty steep price … that is unless they’ve got a mastermind lawyer behind this whole stunt. It’ll be interesting.
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