Decentralized exchange (DEX) Trader Joe is being sued by American retail company Trader Joe’s on federal trademark violation grounds.
“Defendants operate a cryptocurrency platform called ‘Trader Joe’ and use the domain name traderjoexyz.com,” a court filing read. “Defendants named the platform ‘after the supermarket’ — none other than Trader Joe’s — and developed a narrative around a fictionalized ‘Trader Joe’ who sells his crops in the local marketplace, further evoking Trader Joe’s business and brand.”
One of the most well-known decentralized exchanges is Trader Joe, which started on the Avalanche network before extending to the BNB Chain, Arbitrum, and Ethereum networks.According to data, it executed over $25 million in trades in September while holding over $77 million in different tokens across chains.
The DEX allegedly “committed fraud” to confuse its origin story in order to win court battles over the domain name, according to the lawsuit submitted last week to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.In May 2022, Trader Joe filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to have the cryptocurrency company’s domain name traderjoexyz.com taken away after the shop ignored private instructions to stop using the trademark improperly.
“To salvage their case, Defendants concocted a false story. In the WIPO proceeding, Defendants obscured the true beginnings of the ‘Trader Joe’ name and falsely claimed that the platform had been named for the co-founder’s brother,” the filing says.
The supermarket company is requesting damages and a jury trial.The cost of JOE, Trader Joe’s native token, fell 4.5% in the previous week, and traders may still be responding to the legal actions.