After losing a preliminary copyright lawsuit last year, cryptocurrency knock-off Alibabacoin has finally rescinded and agreed to stop using the Alibaba name.
In a joint statement released on Monday, Alibabacoin and Alibaba announced they have reached an agreement which will see Alibabacoin change its name, Reuters reports.
According to the statement, the two firms have “reached a worldwide settlement of claims involving the use of the name Alibabacoin, with ABBC agreeing not to use trademarks that include the term Alibaba worldwide,” a local news outlet reports.
Having worked out their differences – or should it be similarities? – Alibabacoin will now be known as ABBC Coin, with the parent company being known as the ABBC Foundation.
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The Chinese e-commerce giant argued that Alibabacoin’s name caused confusion for its customers and was damaging to its US business.
The Dubai-based ABBC Foundation ran an initial coin offering (ICO) using the Alibaba name, but it believes it would not have caused confusion as ICOs are banned in China – Alibaba’s biggest market.It also claims the word “Alibaba” is “inherently generic” in the Middle East.
This marks the end of a long-running case between the two firms.
In May last year, courts ruled against Alibaba, denying the Chinese firm’s request for an injunction to prevent ABBC from using the Alibaba name.
But the case reached a peak, late last year, when courts ruled in favor of Alibaba and ordered the ABBC Foundation to stop using any materials, terms, marks, designs, words, and terms belonging to Alibaba.
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