Who owns the bitcoin trademark?

[BlackHatCoiner]

bitcoin.org is owned by bitcoin developers.
bitcoin.com is owned by person/people who provide bitcoin services.

But who owns the "Bitcoin" brand?

[Nalbo]

bitcoin.org is owned by bitcoin developers.
bitcoin.com is owned by person/people who provide bitcoin services.

But who owns the "Bitcoin" brand?

Bitcoin is a popular open source project with MIT license. It's a community brand but I don't know for sure if anyone could apply for Bitcoin as brand. Bitcoin.org acts as the reference site for Bitcoin but it's still a privately registered domain so is bitcoin.com

[dadach]

bitcoin.org is owned by bitcoin developers.
bitcoin.com is owned by person/people who provide bitcoin services.

But who owns the "Bitcoin" brand?

bitcoin.com is actually anti current bitcoin btc technology. they forked off to bch -  bitcoin cash, and they are trying to push it as the real bitcoin. obviously with their hashrate and usage, it is laughable. also they have r/btc on reddit. real bitcoin group is r/bitcoin.

just fyi

[Jawhead999]

Just quick search on google and I found this

No one can claim they own the term BITCOIN. As a result, everyone can use it, even in their own trademarks.

[eaLiTy]

bitcoin.org is owned by bitcoin developers.

The original and the only domain Satoshi Nakamoto registered but it is now controlled by Cobra.

bitcoin.com is owned by person/people who provide bitcoin services.

‎Roger Ver‎ owns this domain and it is not even BTCitcoin related  .

But who owns the "Bitcoin" brand?

Basically no one until Satoshi comes back and claims his work .

[nicecrypto]

Just quick search on google and I found this

No one can claim they own the term BITCOIN. As a result, everyone can use it, even in their own trademarks.

But the way it seems no other project or business can use that term "Bitcoin" because it looks like already a trademark for btc, even though not official, it will be very weird for another brand to use now, everyone is already aware of bitcoin and btc as its ticker,
I don't think it is appropriate for anyone to use it now, just my opinion.

[davis196]

bitcoin.org is owned by bitcoin developers.
bitcoin.com is owned by person/people who provide bitcoin services.

But who owns the "Bitcoin" brand?

Bitcoin is not a company,so the name Bitcoin can't be considered a brand.Bitcoin is a currency.Can the other currencies (fiat and crypto) be considered as brands?Nobody is talking about whether or not the US dollar is a brand or who owns the term euro,because it would sound absurd.
The altcoin fork scammers took advantage of this situation and made several "Bitcoin"(BCH,BSV,Bitcoingold,etc..) projects that aren't actually Bitcoin.We can't do anything about that.

[Yogee]

None so far but there's an identity thief a.k.a Craig Wright that filed for a copyright for the original Bitcoin whitepaper and for the source codes. I won't be surprised if he does it for the Bitcoin word too.

bitcoin.org is owned by bitcoin developers.
bitcoin.com is owned by person/people who provide bitcoin services.

But who owns the "Bitcoin" brand?

Bitcoin is not a company,so the name Bitcoin can't be considered a brand.Bitcoin is a currency.Can the other currencies (fiat and crypto) be considered as brands?Nobody is talking about whether or not the US dollar is a brand or who owns the term euro,because it would sound absurd.
The altcoin fork scammers took advantage of this situation and made several "Bitcoin"(BCH,BSV,Bitcoingold,etc..) projects that aren't actually Bitcoin.We can't do anything about that.

Bitcoin doesn't need to be a company to be trademarked. Anyone can file for a trademark even if it's just a word. Ask how Pat Riley did it for the "Three-Peat".

[gentlemand]

I thought Mark Karpeles had something to do with trademarks at some point and this seems to confirm it - https://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2014/05/28/mt-gox-operator-looks-to-sell-bitcoin-trademarks/

I'm not sure what powers or rights it actually gave him or where. He is of course long gone now. Couldn't think of a more responsible custodian so let's get him back on board.

[Getmon]

I'd rather call Bitcoin public. It is owned by everyone. I think it should not be registered by a particular company or person as a trademark. 

Here is an interesting article I found online. https://news.bitcoin.com/a-london-based-company-successfully-trademarks-the-name-bitcoin/

There was actually a firm that trademarked Bitcoin in the UK. That was a selfish move that repulsed the Bitcoin community.

"UK-based firm called ‘A.B.C. IPHoldings South West’ has successfully acquired a trademark for the name ‘Bitcoin’."

“The Bitcoin Foundation believes that the term “Bitcoin” alone should not be the intellectual property of any individual or entity"

[Shame_Game]

I do not think that at least someone owns this trademark, and is unlikely to ever own it.

[electronicash]

its an opensource so no one which is why anyone can fork BTC for whatever editions they can make, no one can stop them from doing so. so many domains today with the word "bitcoin" on it or BTC but no one nor the team can file a case against them since its their right and after all its opensource.

if CW will successfully prove he is satoshi which i doubt he can, he may actually file a trademark for BTC and all those who uses "bitcoin" in any brand they promote may face infringement. well it wont happen.

[Baofeng]

And if you're wondering about the Bitcoin Logo (BTC), it is part of a public domain:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bitcoin_logo.svg

I thought Mark Karpeles had something to do with trademarks at some point and this seems to confirm it - https://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2014/05/28/mt-gox-operator-looks-to-sell-bitcoin-trademarks/

I'm not sure what powers or rights it actually gave him or where. He is of course long gone now. Couldn't think of a more responsible custodian so let's get him back on board.

Interesting to note that that the trademarks will expire in 2021 in EU and 2022 in Japan. And we don't know if Mark Karpeles will renew it or not.

[Zionatin]

Bitcoin is not a brand. Though I guess if you wore the bitcoin logo on a shirt you could call it bitcoin branding so maybe I am wrong? It certainly is not a brand in the traditional sense of a franchise like cooperation.
Bitcoin is owned by no one and thus everyone... I know that doesn't make sense I did that on purpose and say that because we all own bitcoin, each one of us helps the network in some small way and even just holding bitcoin gives you a piece of the pie. Bitcoin is for the people and belongs to us all.

[KrisAlex18]

As we all know bitcoin was made by Satoshi, but I still search it on google, who owns the bitcoin.

From google
Bitcoin.org was originally registered and owned by Bitcoin's first two developers, Satoshi Nakamoto and Martti Malmi. Satoshi Nakamoto is Inventing bitcoin, implementing the first blockchain, deploying the first decentralized digital currency

Actually, I don't know if I answered correctly your question, is bitcoin and bitcoin trade mark different? As I have a search on google bitcoin trademark also made by Satoshi but other sources say that it has made by some countries.

[bitbunnny]

bitcoin.org is owned by bitcoin developers.
bitcoin.com is owned by person/people who provide bitcoin services.

But who owns the "Bitcoin" brand?

Bitcoin is not a company,so the name Bitcoin can't be considered a brand.Bitcoin is a currency.Can the other currencies (fiat and crypto) be considered as brands?Nobody is talking about whether or not the US dollar is a brand or who owns the term euro,because it would sound absurd.
The altcoin fork scammers took advantage of this situation and made several "Bitcoin"(BCH,BSV,Bitcoingold,etc..) projects that aren't actually Bitcoin.We can't do anything about that.

I don't think that for protwcting trademark is relwvant that Bitcoin is a currency. Anything could be protected with trademark just needs to be registered as such. Although that depends on legal system of the country where you want to do it.
However, I don't think that Satoshi or someone else has registered and protected Bitcoin trademark.

[pooya87]

bitcoin is not company, nor a trademark, nor a brand. bitcoin is a concept and a set of clearly defined rules. and when the majority of people agree on these set of rules the result of it becomes bitcoin. if the majority choose to agree on another set of rules or change parts of the currently existing rules then the new agreed upon rules become bitcoin.
so in many ways we can say the entire decentralized network of bitcoin own the name "Bitcoin" as they define it.

[wingfield_crypto]

bitcoin.org is owned by bitcoin developers.
bitcoin.com is owned by person/people who provide bitcoin services.

But who owns the "Bitcoin" brand?

A currency is not a society that can be considered a brand. A currency is a currency. It is not even known for sure who invented it. It is believed to be a certain Satoshi Nakamoto.
Bitcoin is a "brand", if you will, owned by us investors. No one has mastered it so far, so it is ours, everyone's and it is the main reason why we love cryptocurrency.

[hatshepsut93]

Your question is surprisingly difficult, and anyone who isn't a lawyer won't give you a full answer. Here's some links if you want to do some research:

https://google.github.io/opencasebook/trademarks/

https://www.onecommunityglobal.org/open-source-trademarking-copyrights/

I don't know much about laws, but from what I understand, a trademark is not the same as intellectual property, and its main goal is actually protecting consumers from fraud rather than giving more control to owners.

[odolvlobo]

I do not think that at least someone owns this trademark, and is unlikely to ever own it.

Mark Karpeles trademarked "BITCOIN" in the E.U. and Japan for some kinds of equipment, as well as IT and telecom services in 2011: https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#details/trademarks/010103646

"BITCOIN" is trademarked in the U.K. for clothing and beverages: https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmcase/page/Results/1/UK00003279106

There was an attempt to trademark "BITCOIN" in the U.S. for bar glassware and utensils in 2013, but it was abandoned after being challenged: https://trademarks.justia.com/861/35/bitcoin-86135516.html