The Dogecoin Foundation announced on Twitter through a certificate dated January 13, 2022, that it had registered the trademarks “Doge,” “Dogecoin,” and its associated logos in the European Union.
“The issue isn’t (and has never been) use in memes, etc,” said Foundation executive board member Jens Wiechers in the tweet thread. “The issue is 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.”
The Dogecoin Organization has had various challenges with the usage of its name and graphics since its rebirth in August, owing to the fact that the foundation did not seek trademark protection when it was founded in 2014.
The foundation took this action to prevent “attempts by people completely unaffiliated with Dogecoin to register” the names for reasons of fraud and extortion, according to board member Jens Wiechers.
In the United States, the foundation’s application at the US Patent and Trademark Office was up against “half a dozen” others as of September.
The Dogecoin name was being used by “at least 100” cryptocurrencies that were unrelated to the Dogecoin Foundation.
Dogecoin’s previous issues with trademark
Another apparent result of the disagreement over the cryptocurrency’s name is Ross Nicoll’s resignation as a foundation director. Nicoll announced his decision on his blog on Feb. 16, writing that the foundation is “working in a very hard climate” with “intense stress.”
“A number of parties were registering trademarks for Dogecoin,” Nicoll says, and “there was a prospective lawsuit against the developers in the summer of 2021 from someone who claimed we were accountable for their cash.”
Nicoll also alluded to a potential conflict of interest with his day job at Alphabet as a software developer. He is still an adviser at the foundation.
The Dogecoin Foundation says Nicoll informed core members of his plans about a year ago and “has been active in the re-establishment of the Dogecoin Foundation” with his leaving in mind in its announcement of Nicoll’s departure.
