Cease and desist notification issued to Monero

[cryptodromeda]

Can anyone shed some light on what is going on?

[sdmathis]

I'm not a Monero holder, but I occasionally trade it and would be very interested in knowing what you're talking about. Please provide some references.

[generalizethis]

Is this in reference to the newb account on reddit who made claims about Monero, but won't provide evidence because "they are protecting their source themselves?"  Or in plain speak: a shorter probably went rogue and decided rumor might destroy what facts can't.  

*www.reddit.com/r/CryptoMarkets/comments/39hdqh/xmr_trading_is_suspended_on_bter_and_trademark_cd/

I was off and on both the forums he mentioned most of yesterday and didn't see a thing posted on this. Unless others can corroborate,  the guy or girl is most likely lying.

[billotronic]

any links on this other then the bs post on reddit?

[generalizethis]

Polo trollbox MOD said it's FUD. Good luck with your short positions.  

[generalizethis]

Polo trollbox MOD said it's FUD.

IRC says otherwise.

No-one is trying to short, at least not as far as I know. As investors however we have a right to know what is going on, especially if XMR is soon to be toast.

"Keeping things under wraps" is not acceptable.

Citations needed--asking for proof is not keeping things under wraps, it is not jumping to the wrong conclusion in what so far has been a newb post (that i had to find) on reddit that has zero citations. By the way, if you look at the copyright for Moneero it is for 2015 and not 2014 when Monero was branded. I'm guessing Moneero added an e to keep from being sued by Monero, not vice versa.

Until some proof is provided, I'm going to err on the side of motivated party spreading FUD.

[sdmathis]

I'm not a Monero holder, but I occasionally trade it and would be very interested in knowing what you're talking about. Please provide some references.

All I know is what people are whispering and that is that a company called Moneero (https://moneero.com/en/) has issued a cease and desist notification to Monero.

i.e Basically Monero has 14 days to shutdown voluntarily or be shutdown by the law.

Actually, if a Cease and Desist order is ignored, they may be sued.

After looking at this a bit closer, it appears to be nothing but BS. If Monero actually received such an order, my guess is that they will just ignore it. It's simply an harassment C&D (if it exists at all).

[Zetacoin Express]

This is unfortunate for Monero, but MONEERO has every right here.  They where first and Monero should have done some basic due dilligence.

However, a did a basic trademark search in the U.S. and it does not appear to be registered.  So at least in the US they may have a fighting chance.

[whap]

moneero is a small uruguayan BTC startup, they are going to shutdown monero worldwide once and for all 

so much BS talk just hurts...

[Hueristic]

W0w anyone that believes this is a retard, it's not even spelled the same. 

[ArticMine]

There is a registered trademark for Moneero in the United States to

Moneero S.A. sociedad anonima (sa) URUGUAY World Trade Center, Tower III Avd. Luis Alberto de Herrera 1248 Montevideo 11300 URUGUAY 11300

as per the USPTO. They claim

IC 036. US 100 101 102. G & S: Electronic commerce payment services, namely, establishing funded accounts used to purchase goods and services on the Internet; Financial services, namely, providing on-line stored value accounts in an electronic environment; Financial transaction services, namely, providing secure commercial transactions and payment options; Providing an internet website portal in the field of financial transaction and payment processing services. FIRST USE: 20130927. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20131207

The registration number is  86158015. so far so good. I see however a problem here: Most if not all the services they claim trademark / servicemark rights over require registration with FinCEN and there is no record of a FinCEN registration for Moneero S.A at http://www.fincen.gov/financial_institutions/msb/msbstateselector.html.

I do not know if any cease and desist letters have been sent and to whom. The first question that comes to my mind is does the defence of "Unclean Hands" http://definitions.uslegal.com/u/unclean-hands/ apply to a situation where a company is claiming trademark infringement in the United States over services that require registration with FinCEN, and the company is not registered as an MSB with FinCEN?

Now where else did I see the defence of "unclean hands" claimed in trademark disputes involving crypto-currencies?

[bathrobehero]

I'm not a Monero holder, but I occasionally trade it and would be very interested in knowing what you're talking about. Please provide some references.

All I know is what people are whispering and that is that a company called Moneero (https://moneero.com/en/) has issued a cease and desist notification to Monero.

i.e Basically Monero has 14 days to shutdown voluntarily or be shutdown by the law.

Interesting, so

Moneero is a mobile money system, based on open technology, and accessible through all channels.

founded in 2013.

I can see why they are pissy but I'm not sure who exactly they are sending the C&D orders.

[sdmathis]

Here's a question. If Monero is decentralized and without central authority, who could they send such a letter to? And if someone or some organization is held liable (if they ignore the letter), what would that say about the decentralized status of Monero in particular as well as decentralization of all digital currency?

[G2M]

More importantly, being a decentralized body with no real representative or responsible party, could they send the cease and desist letters to github and/or sourceforge regardless of whether there is someone to send the letter to

[ArticMine]

Here's a question. If Monero is decentralized and without central authority, who could they send such a letter to? And if someone or some organization is held liable (if they ignore the letter), what would that say about the decentralized status of Monero in particular as well as decentralization of all digital currency?

It is a great question and the decentralized status of Monero could easily make the term Monero impossible to trademark especially given that it is also used as a noun. The International Trademark Association has a brochure on what happens to trademarks when they are used as nouns or verbs. http://www.inta.org/Media/Documents/2012_TMUseMediaInternetPublishing.pdf. In reality this can become no different than trying to trademark "gold" as a form of money. Now if we are dealing with a centralized form of digital currency this is another matter entirely.

Edit: Sending a cease and desist letter can also open the possibility of litigation against the sender by those who are impacted. In the case of a decentralised currency such as Monero this can be anyone who holds, trades or does any business involving Monero.

[aerbax]

It is a great question and the decentralized status of Monero could easily make the term Monero impossible to trademark especially given that it is also used as a noun.
...

Excellent points - especially the noun part.

While this seems like a negative in the very near term, the publicity may not be all bad.

[bathrobehero]

Here's a question. If Monero is decentralized and without central authority, who could they send such a letter to? And if someone or some organization is held liable (if they ignore the letter), what would that say about the decentralized status of Monero in particular as well as decentralization of all digital currency?

My thoughts exactly. My guess is this would go differently than what was the case with the Kanye West coin 'Coinye'. In that case they sent the C&D letter to an email address of the presumable creators of the coin (coinyewest@gmail.com). Among other hilarious things like the dev team sending their own C&D letter to Kanye, there was a lawsuit against the creators of the coin prompting them to sell their Coinye holdings and leave the project. Eventually they dumped their coins and abandoned the project but the lawsuit probably had nothing to do with that.

[celestio]

"Moneero" is registered in a small South American country  and has no ties to "Monero" which stands for a decentralized currency. They are words in different languages, presumably, so this c n d is worthless. I believe it's all lies/fud regardless.

[ArticMine]

"Moneero" is registered in a small South American country and has no ties to "Monero". They are words in different languages, presumably, so this c n d is worthless. I believe it's all lies/fud regardless.

For starters I have not seen any evidence of Moneero S.A. sending any c&d letters to anyone.

[JobCreator]

"Moneero" is registered in a small South American country  and has no ties to "Monero" which stands for a decentralized currency. They are words in different languages, presumably, so this c n d is worthless. I believe it's all lies/fud regardless.

Doesn't matter if the words are spelled differently.  The two names are similar and fall under the same Goods and Services category.

It's like if I were to open a hamburger restaurant, and name it "Whendees"