The Saga of Coinye West Cointinues #Kanye

If it wasn't happening right now, you would assume that it is the type of topic a rapper may apply their unique brand of verbal gymnastics to...  Rapper marries big bottomed reality celebrity, couple lives lavish life, technology nerds try to capitalize off said lavishness by developing new monetary product, rapper takes legal action against Amazon.com.

The development team behind Coinye (the coin formerly known as Coinye West) is living this fairy tale right now, at least the monetary product portion.  They launched Coinye West on January 7^th and shortly after contacted Kanye’s people about being involved with the product.  Kanye did not take kindly to the new crypto currency though and had his lawyer’s send a cease and desist letter to basically everyone.  A C&D could not be sent to the developers because they have remained anonymous so a variety of suspected cooperating parties have been notified that they should stop said cooperation. 

The developers of Coinye have responded to the cease and desist order from Mr. West noting that their crypto currency is is in reference to a mer-man wearing “stunna-shades” who is unrelated to Kayne (West’s laywer’s complained that the initial lawyer was to similar to Kanye’s appearance).  To date it is difficult to trade your Coinye's.  While some exchanges are currently supported, the developers have noted that they are still only in conversations with Cryptsy.  

From the coinye developers…

Upon receipt of your letter, we kindly changed our imagery so not to confuse the general public with your clients image as we appreciate that there may have been a point of contention.

We have now removed any and all references to your client which we feel could mislead someone in to believing that there is in any way a link between the two.

As you can tell from our new community-submitted, updated materials, we make no visual or verbal reference to Kanye West but to a half-man-half-fish hybrid who is wearing sunglasses, again, totally separate from any resemblance to your client.

[...]

We request an end to the constant harassment and scare tactics.

Herein, we require the following from your client.

1. Cease and desist from any and all use of the mark 'Coinye' and other related words or phrases containing 'Coinye'. Should you wish to challenge this request, We require with immediate affect that you supply us with any Intellectual Property proof you may own, including but not limited to, promotional material, video, audio, PR material containing the use of the name or terminology 'Coinye' in any capacity.

2.No further communication through our private email addresses shall be made in an empty [sic] to strong-arm myself and/or any other individual who operates a website or service containing references to 'Coinye' in an attempt to halt efforts on this open source project.[...]

I do not see that there is a likelihood of confusion between the Trademark set forth by your client Kanye West and those being presented by under the Meme Crypto Currency Coinye Coins ("The Gay Fish"). The official site states, and has always stated, that we are not affilated with Kanye West. (See the FAQ section.) These sites are used to provide people with Coinye Coins so that they may purchase "Fish Sticks For Their Mouth."