Digital payments company Block Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Bitcoin.com, owned by Roger Ver, for alleged trademark infringement of his new Verse token, which was the subject of a $33 private sale. $.6 million in May 2022.
In a letter to Bitcoin.com CEO Dennis Jarvis and the company’s legal counsel Joseph Collement, lawyers representing Bloc say that Bitcoin.com’s use is trademark infringement under applicable law. The letter, dated August 10, 2022, followed an announcement dated July 4, 2022 in which Block’s legal counsel, Bird & Bird, first laid out its trademark infringement case in Germany. A source familiar with the matter shared the letter with Cointelegraph.
The alleged trademark infringement stems from Block’s acquisition of Verse Technologies Inc. and Decentralized Global Payments SL in 2020. “Since the takeover, this application has been operated by our client,” the letter says.
Block’s legal counsel explained that the VERSE app is available in Europe, including Germany, and can be accessed on Apple and Android devices. The letter specified Block’s rights to a design mark containing the word “Verse” as well as the word “VERSE”, with priority to computer software and applications for mobile devices.
“The use of the designation ‘VERSE’ constitutes an infringement of our client’s trademarks under German trademark law,” the letter concluded, adding:
“Therefore our client has demands against you to cease and desist from the infringing acts. In addition, our client seeks information about the scope of the acts of infringement as well as compensation for any damage our client has suffered or will suffer as a result of the infringement. Finally, our client is entitled to reimbursement for the costs we incurred in relation to this letter. »
Block’s legal counsel demanded Bitcoin.com sign a Ceasing and Commitment Statement by August 17, 2022, or face legal action. He also asked Bitcoin.com to “cease and desist” from its operations related to the Verse token in the European Union under penalty of a contractual penalty of 10,400 dollars (10,000 euros) “for each case of infringement”. Block also requested that legal costs of 3,906.54 dollars (3,744.50 euros) be reimbursed.
Bitcoin.com is owned by early stage bitcoin (BTC) investor Roger Ver, who was CEO until August 1, 2019. Bitcoin.com operates a digital asset exchange and wallet, and provides daily information in the cryptocurrency market. Many in the crypto community know Ver for his strong support for Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which emerged in 2017 after leaving the original Bitcoin blockchain, due to philosophical differences around scalability and transaction speed. However, its proponents believe that BCH is more aligned with the vision laid out for bitcoin in Satoshi Nakamoto’s 2008 white paper.
Founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey, Block dropped the Square name in December 2021 to focus on blockchain technology and bitcoin. Dorsey has gradually focused on bitcoin hardware and payment solutions since stepping down as Twitter CEO in November 2021.
Also read: Get Your Money Back: The Strange World of Crypto Disputes
Ver and Dorsey have been embroiled in personal disputes over the years, including in 2019 when Ver accused Dorsey of supporting the Lightning Network because of his alleged romantic involvement with Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark. Some have speculated that these personal issues are the reason Twitter never confirmed Bitcoin.com’s identity when Dorsey was CEO.
My theory why @jack so unreasonably hot for #Lightning Network it’s because he has / had a romantic relationship with @starknessChief executive @lightning
— Roger Ver (@rogerkver) August 10, 2019
My theory as to why @jack is so irrationally enthusiastic about #LightningNetwork is that he is/was romantically involved with @starkness, CEO of @lightning.- Roger Ver (@rogerkver) August 10, 2019
The Verse token at the heart of the legal dispute is the subject of a public announcement on Bitcoin.com’s Twitter page. Its creators describe Verse as a “cross-chain token” aimed at expanding into low-cost Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) networks. It has a fixed supply of 210 billion securities distributed over seven years. Its private sale, which concluded last May, raised $33.6 million.
