Coinye West: the birth and the first difficulties

In early January, the world saw the new digital currency. Creators decided to give it a name Coinye West after the famous rapper Kanye West. According to the developers, Coinye West is intended to be more accessible than Bitcoin and all the other established digital monetary systems. There will be a graphical front end for mining Coinye West coins known as CoinyeMiner. The developers say their goal is to make mining a one-click proposition, allowing every user to mine their coins.

Coinye West launch was scheduled for January 11th, but eventually was moved. The Coinye West team wrote on its site:

«Due to legal pressure, we will be launching today, January 7, at 7:00PM, Pacific Standard Time».

On 6th January Kanye West’s lawyers filed a cease-and-desist order against the team of coders who developed Coinye West, claiming trademark infringement. The claims for developers first of all were related to the fact that the design of the coin features a cartoon of West.

«Given Mr West’s wide-ranging entrepreneurial accomplishments, consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Mr West is the source of your services», said in a statement.

Developers in response have redesigned the image which was cited in the complaint. The new design depicts Kanye as a fish. This is a reference to the famous series of «South Park» cartoon. And it has the legal meaning. Certain parodies of trademarks are permissible, including artistic and editorial parodies. It are protected by the First Amendment in the US. However, courts in many cases rejected such arguments of protection.

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