Disney Stops Justin Sun’s TRON
December 23, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rejected three trademark applications, related to the Tron cryptocurrency platform, including one for “TRON,” after Disney claimed the trademarks would damage its brand.
Tron Foundation’s China-based partner, Raybo Technology, applied for the registration of the TRON, TRONNETWORK, and TRONIX trademarks in February 2018. In August, Disney announced a potential mix of trademarks, but Raybo Technology did not respond.
Disney, in its objection, indicated that it was already using the names mentioned in the film series. In 1982, the sci-fi movie “Tron” was released, followed by a sequel, an animated series, a series of video games and paraphernalia. According to the company, the Tron Foundation in the application for registration of the trademark used only capital letters, which makes it especially similar to the name of the film. This confirms the “maliciousness” of the Tron Foundation and may confuse the Disney customer base.
The Tron Foundation did not respond within nine months, after which the Patent and Trademark Office rejected all three applications. Raybo Technology already owns nine trademarks in China, including Tron, TRX, and Tronix.
“Tron clearly didn’t take the trademark registration process seriously,” commented lawyer Jake Chervinsky. — “They never hired U.S. counsel to represent them, even though the USPTO explicitly ordered them to do so. They also didn’t respond to the USPTO’s notice of default, meaning they gave up on their trademark attempt completely.”
Author: Marko Vidrih
