Kanye West Wins “Coinye” Lawsuit
Kanye West’s legal battle with the creators of the “Coinye” bitcoin has been forced to halt their plans of dispersing the digital currency.
The hip-hop star sent a cease-and-desist letter to seven anonymous coders and filed a trademark-infringement lawsuit in January, which temporarily shut down the currency until the Coinye creators changed their logo.
The original logo of West’s face wearing his trademark windowshade sunglasses was altered to make the rapper a cartoon man-fish featured on a South Park episode that mocked how West perceived himself.
Two months after Coinye was abandoned, West amended his lawsuit to include over 100 names, emails and background of some defendants. The suit claimed coders came all over the country, as well as China, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Slovakia.
A majority of the defendants lost the suit simply by failing to respond to documents, but three settled with West: Richard McCord, David McEnery and Harry Willis.
The lawyer for McCord said it was “unfortunate that a parody turned into such an expensive endeavor.”
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(Photo by Pierre Suu/Getty Images)
