Meme coins served with legal notice by NFT
The owners of the Grumpy Cat and Nyan Cat trademarks have issued cease and desist notices on meme coins bearing the same names through an on-chain transaction.
Most meme coin projects and non-fungible tokens (NFT) projects have anonymous identities, and can only be identified through a wallet address.
The law firm served legal notice as an NFT
Since there is no specific medium to serve anonymous projects with legal notices, law firm Kia Kamran took the unusual step of serving Grumpy Cat Coin and Nyan Meme coin with a legal warning on the chain.
The firm transferred the lawsuit as an NFT to the distribution address of the Grumpy Cat and Nyan meme coins.
The lawsuit claims that Grumpy Cat Limited owns the trademark for the Grumpy Cat meme, while Nyanify Inc. owns the trademark for the Nyan meme.
A large number of meme projects have taken inspiration from certain viral memes. Would they face copyright infringement claims in the future?
Community Bullish on NFT usage
Some NFT enthusiasts see it as a perfect application for the technology. A Twitter user wrote, “It’s epic. I’m proud to be a pioneer and witness this perfect exploitation of NFTs.” Another user wrote“Law firms are now getting on board crypto, bullish.”
However, a legal advisor mean it would be difficult to prove whether the projects passed the cease-and-desist orders. He says:
“Waiting for some higher courts to confirm such a service is sufficient! I guess they also sent C&D to the website host and maybe even twitter? That way, they will have a better chance of reaching the person behind.”
Finally, on-chain scout ZachXBT claims that the identity of the deployers could be doxxed as the addresses were funded by centralized exchanges.
Some speculate whether the proceeding could set a standard for legal action against decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFT projects.
Got something to say about meme coins or something else? Write to us or join the discussion on our Telegram channel. You can also catch us on TikTok, Facebook or Twitter.
For BeInCrypto’s latest Bitcoin (BTC) analysis, click here.
Disclaimer
In accordance with the guidelines of the Trust Project, BeInCrypto is committed to objective, transparent reporting. This news article aims to provide accurate, timely information. However, readers are advised to verify the facts independently and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content.
