Reports said that the Dogecoin Foundation has said that it had registered “Doge,” “Dogecoin” and its associated logos as trademarks in the European Union.
It has been reported that the certificate displayed in the tweet was dated January 13, 2022. Foundation executive board member Jens Wiechers said in the tweet thread that the issue is not (and has never been) used in memes, etc, but attempts by people completely unaffiliated with Dogecoin to register them, which only really makes sense if they want to then extort either the community or the Dogecoin project, devs, foundation, etc. directly.
However, since its revival in August, the Dogecoin Foundation has faced numerous issues with the use of its name and imagery due to the fact that the foundation did not seek trademark protection at the time of its creation in 2014.
As of September in the United States, the foundation’s application at the US Patent and Trademark Office was competing with “half a dozen” others. “At least 100” cryptocurrencies not related to the Dogecoin Foundation were using the Dogecoin name.
The report said that another apparent consequence of the scramble over the cryptocurrency’s name has been the resignation of foundation director Ross Nicoll. Announcing his decision in his blog on February 16, Nicoll wrote that the foundation “is operating in an extremely challenging environment” where “the stress involved is overwhelming.”
Likewise, according to Nicoll, “a number of parties were registering trademarks for Dogecoin,” and “in the summer of 2021, there was a potential lawsuit against the developers from someone who claimed we were responsible for their funds.” Nicoll also mentioned a possible conflict of interest with his day job as a software developer at Alphabet. He remains at the foundation as an adviser.
Thus, in its announcement of Nicoll’s move, the Dogecoin Foundation said Nicoll told core members of his plans almost a year ago and “has been instrumental in the re-establishment of the Dogecoin Foundation” with his departure in mind.
Source: Cointelegraph