by Kanye West is looking to block an attempt by a group of online entrepreneurs, who created Coinye West, a new version of online currency, from seeing daylight.
West’s attorneys sent a cease-and-desist letter to seven anonymous coders behind the creation of the virtual currency, which blew up after a chatroom joke, claiming trademark infringement. The coins feature what appears to be a cartoon-like version of the hip hop mogul.
According to documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal, West's lawyer Brad Rose, a partner at Pryor Cashman LLP, state, "Given Mr. West's wide-ranging entrepreneurial accomplishments, consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Mr. West is the source of your services."
The letter didn’t scare the techies; they renamed the online money “Coinye,” altered the cartoon, and changed the domain to an India registration before launching the currency on Tuesday (Jan. 7).
“We want to release this to the public before the man can try to crush it,” one of the coders said in a Skype text interview Monday night. “They’ll still come after us, but that’s OK.”
