The
New York Federal Court denied the motion to dismiss the ruling in the
trademark infringement action by cryptocurrency wallet and exchange
operator Blockchain.com against fintech startup Paymium and its CEO
Pierre Noizat over the use of domain “blockchain.io”.
According to the court documents
published on Aug. 7, the lawsuit, originally filed by Blockchain.com in
September 2018, claimed that Paymium and its Blockchain.io platform not
only infringed on the trademark, but also were involved in alleged
unfair competition and false advertising.
Blockchain versus Blockchain
In
February 2019, Paymium moved a motion “to dismiss the amended complaint
for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted [...] and
for lack of personal jurisdiction over Pierre Noizat.”
In its
turn, Blockchain.com successfully managed to argue that their marks were
not inherently descriptive and acquired secondary meaning, and that
Blockchain.com and Blockchain.io marks were substantially similar enough
for the case to proceed.
The New York Federal Court denied the trademark infringement part of the Paymium’s motion and allowed the suit to continue.
You don’t mess with the SEC
The
court also found Paymium’s advertising claims that the “filing has been
accepted and [it is] now registered with the SEC!” to be false, so this
part stays in the lawsuit too.
In reality, the only thing the
startup registered at that time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission was a Form D. Blockchain.com argued that “the filing of a
Form D does not mean that a security is ‘registered’ or that it has been
in any way scrutinized or approved by the SEC.” The court agreed.
At
the same time, all claims against Pierre Noizat were dismissed due to
the actual lack of personal jurisdiction. The court also argued that the
advertising of “hack-free status and atomic swaps” was not false.
Recently, Cointelegraph reported
that IT giant Oracle sued blockchain startup CryptoOracle alleging
trademark infringement and cybersquatting in the Northern District of
California.
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