The Dogecoin Foundation announced on Twitter on Wednesday that it has registered “Doge”, “Dogecoin” and related logos as trademarks in the European Union. The certificate shown in the tweet is dated January 13, 2022.
Foundation executive board member Jens Wiechers said in a tweet thread: “The problem is not (and never was) in memes etc, but in the attempts of people completely unrelated to Dogecoin to register them, which really makes sense, only if they want to then directly extort money from the community or the Dogecoin project, the developers, the foundation, etc.”
Big success. It’s a small victory that seems completely out of place given everything that’s going on in the world right now, but it’s an important step. Thanks to @DACBeachcroft (and for that: @PageWhite_IP Germany) and @MosesSingerLLP for their US representation.♥️ 1/ pic.twitter.com/nufaJLUSFG — Dogecoin Foundation (@DogecoinFdn) March 2, 2022
Since its resurrection in August, the Dogecoin Foundation has faced numerous issues with the use of its name and images due to the foundation’s failure to apply for trademark protection at the time of its inception in 2014. In the United States, as of September, the foundation’s U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filing competed with “half a dozen” others, and “at least 100” non-Dogecoin Foundation cryptocurrencies were using the Dogecoin name.
Another obvious consequence of the struggle for the name of the cryptocurrency was the resignation of the director of the fund, Ross Nicholl. Announcing his decision on his blog on Feb. 16, Nicholl wrote that the fund is “operating in an extremely challenging environment” where “the accompanying stress is enormous.”
According to Nicholl, “several parties have registered trademarks for Dogecoin,” and “in the summer of 2021, a potential lawsuit was filed against the developers from someone who claimed that we were responsible for their funds.”
Nicholl also mentioned a possible conflict of interest with his day job as a software developer at Alphabet. He remains with the fund as an advisor. The Dogecoin Foundation, in its announcement of Nicoll’s move, said that Nicoll told core members about his plans almost a year ago and “played a major role in the recovery of the Dogecoin Foundation” given his departure.
