Dealer Joe’s grocery store has initiated authorized motion in opposition to a equally named decentralized cryptocurrency trade, alleging trademark infringement and model dilution.
U.S. grocery retailer Dealer Joe’s has initiated a lawsuit in a California courtroom in opposition to a cryptocurrency buying and selling platform that goes by an nearly equivalent identify. The authorized motion targets each the platform, named “Dealer Joe,” and its co-founder Cheng Chieh Liu.
The grocery store’s authorized workforce contends that the naming of the decentralized cryptocurrency trade goals intentionally to blur the traces between the 2 entities. Dealer Joe’s attorneys argue that the platform has crafted a fictitious backstory round a personality they name “Dealer Joe,” which they are saying is clearly designed to invoke the grocery chain’s well-established model.
The attorneys have additionally raised issues over the crypto platform’s emblem—a determine carrying a purple cap. This hue doesn’t simply resonate with the colour scheme of the grocery store chain; it is usually a distinguished shade related to the Avalanche layer-1 blockchain, the place the crypto trade initially launched.
Lingering questions
Cheng Chieh Liu, a Singapore resident and citizen of China, is claimed to have registered the contentious internet area traderjoexyz.com. The lawsuit outlines that the identify Dealer Joe is used not simply on the first web site but in addition throughout varied different platforms—starting from the Apple App Retailer to social media retailers similar to YouTube, Discord, Reddit, Telegram and CoinMarketCap.
When questioned, the accused reportedly tried to obscure their origins, presumably to strengthen their authorized place in regards to the area. Dealer Joe’s grocery store argues that this transfer reveals the crypto platform’s consciousness of its tenuous declare to the identify and area.
Based in 2021, the DEX in query was developed by an nameless workforce and operates on the Avalanche blockchain. It originated as a fork of the SushiSwap protocol. On the trade, liquidity suppliers can deposit funds to earn transaction charges, typically termed “supply-side charges,” from merchants.
The lawsuit additionally signifies that the workers of the crypto platform make the most of pseudonyms each inside and out of doors the corporate. Dealer Joe’s grocery store posits that the platform is leveraging its identify to realize business benefits, exploiting the retailer’s strong model and trademark.