Bitcoin Forum

What are possible scenarios regarding ownership of the "bitcoin" trademark (currently held by Mt. Gox) if owner goes bankrupt, or dissolves, or fails in other similar ways?

I believe the trademark would be a marketable asset.

.....didn't know that Gox owns Bitcoin trademark  :o

An optimistic scenario would be to transfer it to the Bitcoin Foundation before the sh#t hits the fan ;D
Highly doubtful of that situation though because its $ignificance on their balance sheet.


If so, and assuming that Gox has to liquidate its assets, I would hope that the foundation pulls together to purchase it on the open market before someone ill-intentioned gets it.

due to the decentralized nature of crypto currencies trademarks and copyrights are the property of the entire bitcoin/cryptocurrency community
 

I actually wasn't able to find any active federal registration for the trademark "BITCOIN".

There were two registrations attempted. Both were abandoned.

That's very nice and cuddly, but probably not true.
In the UK, the Bitcoin trademark is indeed owned by Mt Gox: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=82224.0

There's more to this world than the U.S. See thread linked to by murraypaul above.

even if someone did register and try to profit they would fail pretty quickly

Mtgox statement:

We registered the Bitcoin trademark to protect it and allow anyone to use Bitcoins without risking to be attacked by our Pascazi friends (or other people).

More people using Bitcoin freely is of course good for our business. Some US lawyer registering the trademark in various countries with plans to profit from the registration and not by allowing more people to use Bitcoin is bad for our business.

We didn't register the trademark for the purpose of preventing others from using the word Bitcoin, but to protect ourselves and our customers from people who have this kind of mindset.

Their statement has no legal force, they can do what they like with their trademark.