NanoLabs Sues Cryptocurrency Exchange Coinbase Over Trademark Infringement

Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges globally, has been sued by NanoLabs over trademark infringement.

According to the complaint, Coinbase violated trademark laws when it issued its Nano Bitcoin and Nano Ether futures contracts.

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According to the February 24th filing for the Northern California District Court, NanoLabs wants an injunction to stop Coinbase from using “Nano” and all other names of a similar nature.

Plaintiff seeks injunctive relief to permanently bar Defendants from use of the word “Nano”, the Nano Marks, the Nano Bitcoin and Ether Marks, and any confusingly similar marks in commerce in connection with their products, services, or offerings.

NanoLabs claims the trademark violations led to financial harm to the company and damage to its brand, leading to "irreparable harm." Therefore, it wants to receive $5 million as compensation for damages. It also wants the court to instruct Coinbase to correct all ads and to destroy all material infringing on its trademark.

Additionally, they seek forfeiture of all profits the crypto exchange earned by using the NanoLabs’ trademarks. The company has also asked the court to grant it a jury trial.

NanoLabs further revealed that it had been in communication with Coinbase since 2018. Therefore, NanoLabs believes that Coinbase knew about Nano (XNO) token before it launched its products. NanoLabs alleges that this was the reason Coinbase rejected NanoLabs’ listing application on its exchange platform.

According to the filing, Coinbase ought to have known that offering the derivative products would confuse its customers since Nano cryptocurrency is not listed on the exchange. It states that Coinbase did not provide any disclaimer to its customers to ease the confusion.

Nano (XNO) was founded in 2014 by Colin LeMahieu. At the time, it was called RaiBlocks, before rebranding to Nano on January 31, 2018. At the time of writing, XNO retails for $0.9144, recording a 0.02% price decrease.