Unicoin and Uniswap Face Off in Court Over UNI Trademark

Unicoin has filed suit against Uniswap Labs in federal court in New York, claiming that its UNICOIN trademark does not violate Uniswap's trademarks and also requesting cancellation of the UNI trademark registration. As per a report by Crypto.news, the complaint was filed by Unicoin on September 8 in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The disagreement followed several months of demands by Uniswap, claiming that the company had infringed the trademark and was further accused of dilution, cybersquatting, and unfair competition. 

Unicoin Challenges Distinctiveness of Uniswap's UNI Trademark

As per the report, the complaint further states that Uniswap had been aware of Unicoin for at least two years prior to filing the first trademark claims in June. In the litigation, the request to the court is to declare that Unicoin could continue using the mark without violating the rights of UNISWAP, UNI, or UNICHAIN trademarks. Unicoin has filed a separate suit against US Trademark Registration No. 7,307,721 on the basis that the UNI mark is generic or descriptive.

The controversy started following a letter from Uniswap's attorneys on June 3rd that called for Unicoin to permanently cease using the UNICOIN name and any other name incorporating UNI in relation to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, decentralised finance, or a decentralised system. As per the complaint, Uniswap asked for the transfer of domain names unicorn.com and unicorn.org, a financial report of earnings made by Unicoin, repayment of legal expenses incurred, and an agreement not to use the contested marks in the future.

Unicoin did not agree to these terms on June 23 and told Uniswap that the UNICOIN name was created independently and had been used by the company continuously from 2021 onwards. Their legal team claimed that the two brands were dissimilar in both looks and meaning, while the extensive use of “UNI” weakened Uniswap's claim on it. Uniswap did not agree with that solution on July 17 and stated that UNICOIN might lead to confusion with UNISWAP, UNI and UNICHAIN. It added that it may take up some other legal actions if there was no favorable solution.

An essential element of the case by Unicoin questions the distinctiveness of the UNI mark. Uniswap has a federal trademark registration for UNI, which applies to technology used for the issuance of cryptocurrency tokens that can be used for voting and governance of a blockchain protocol. The registration states September 16, 2020, as the date of first commercial use and was filed in February 2024.

According to Unicoin, "uni" is a common prefix originating from the Latin word unus, meaning "one," and is used in words such as unit, union, universe, university, and even unicorn. It alleges that there are more than 3,600 trademarks in the US Patent and Trademark Office system that use UNI, with about 1,000 still in use.

A comparison between the logos of the two firms can be seen side by side on page 14 of the complaint. While the unicorn logo of Unicoin is characterised by angles and sharp lines, that of Uniswap uses curves.