In recent news, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has been named as a defendant in a legal complaint brought by NanoLabs, the company behind the digital currency Nano (NANO).
The complaint alleges that Coinbase’s Nano Bitcoin futures contract and Nano Ether futures contract products infringe on trademark rights owned by NanoLabs.
The filing, which was made with the California Northern District Court on February 24, 2023, claims that the alleged trademark infringement has caused NanoLabs economic detriment and weakened its brand identity, resulting in “actual damage and irreparable harm.”
According to NanoLabs, Coinbase’s offerings are “derivative products” based on Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), which are “identical or highly similar” to its digital currency, Nano. It also argues that Coinbase targets the same type of consumer as NanoLabs and that the trademarks for Coinbase’s products “are identical, and […] confusingly similar,” to NanoLabs.
Furthermore, NanoLabs alleges that Coinbase had full knowledge of the Nano digital currency before launching its products due to correspondence between the two companies starting in 2018, which later resulted in Coinbase allegedly denying NanoLab’s application to list Nano on Coinbase.
“Thus, since at least October 17, 2018, various department heads and directors, as well as associates, in various departments at Coinbase were familiar with the Nano Digital Currency,” the court documents read.
NanoLabs further argued that Coinbase should “have known that offering Nano Bitcoin on the Coinbase Derivatives Exchange would only further consumer confusion.”
It claimed that this was particularly the case because the Nano digital currency is not listed on the Coinbase exchange, and Coinbase provides no disclaimer, distinction, or otherwise to educate consumers to this point.
