The Dubai-based company behind the cryptocurrency Alibabacoin has countered accusations from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba that it was trading on its name and reputation.
Alibaba’s lawyers filed a motion in New York last week in an attempt to force the company to change the coin’s name as well as pursue damages for an initial coin offering (ICO) it described as “prominent, repeated and intentionally misleading”.
Citing the popular Middle Eastern folklore character Ali Baba, lawyers for the Alibabacoin Foundation rejected the charges.
They said 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.”
Alibabacoin is a cryptocurrency that adds facial recognition technology to blockchain-enabled payments for an additional layer of security.
The company claims it had already raised 3.5 million in funding, selling their target 50 million coins in the first round after just five days. More
By Eddie Taylor arabianbusiness.com
