On April 30th, 2018, the District Court of Manhattan in the United States of America rejected the lawsuit filed by the retail giant from China, Alibaba Group Holding, against a company from Dubai that organized an initial coin offering (ICO) using the name Alibabacoin and without the permission from the Chinese company.
According to Reuters, the judge Paul Oetken said that Alibaba did not prove to have jurisdiction because the company did not demonstrate a reasonable probability that Alibabacoin would use its web series to perform business in New York, which is why the judge decided to reject the lawsuit and cancelled the temporary restriction order against Alibabacoin, emitted on April 2nd by the judge Kimba Wood.
The judge Oetken explained that any possible damage that Alibaba could have suffered because of the alleged violation of its brand, probably would have occurred in China where the company has its headquarters and not in the United States of America. Simply put, the US authorities cannot react where they do not have jurisdiction.
The judge Paul Oetken also declared that it did not matter that Alibabacoin could eventually register its cryptocurrency with the cryptocurrency exchanges that operate in the United States of America or that a company with headquarters in New York provided Alibabacoin with hosting services for one of its websites. However, the judge also mentioned that Alibaba has another opportunity to demonstrate that this case falls into the jurisdiction of the District Court of Manhattan.
The lawsuit filed by Alibaba at the beginning of April this year said that Alibabacoin performed illegal use of the company’s brand for its initial coin offering campaign, which could cause confusion among potential investors. The investors could think the Chinese retail giant was behind the ICO and this could also damage the reputation of the company.
At the moment, Alibabacoin Foundation, founded and managed by Jason Daniel Paul Philip, has successfully completed its ICO campaign. The cryptocurrency created by the company from Dubai will be used to make payments in online shops using facial recognition.
