Dubai-based cryptocurrency company Alibabacoin Foundation has reportedly rejected the allegations of trademark infringement brought against it by the giant Chinese online retailer Alibaba Group Holding, according to Reuters.
A judge at the US District Court in Manhattan imposed a temporary restraining order on Alibabacoin Foundation after Alibaba filed a trademark suit against the Dubai-based firm.
According to a Reuters report, in a complaint filed in US District Court in Manhattan, Alibaba said Alibabacoin Foundation’s “prominent, repeated, and intentionally misleading” use of its trademarks is designed to confuse consumers to think its products are affiliated with or endorsed by the Chinese online retailer.
In response, Alibabacoin Foundation’s lawyers said the company had no intention to infringe on Alibaba’s intellectual property and that the lawsuit’s demand for it to shut down and restart with another name was “neither a reasonable or proportionate response to our client’s entirely legitimate use of an inherently generic word which emanates not from China, but indeed from the very region in respect of which your client would seek to prohibit its use.”
Ali Baba is the name of the protagonist in the popular Middle Eastern folk tale “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”.
Alibaba Group Holding is one of the world’s biggest e-commerce companies.
