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Kanye West wins Coinye lawsuit

The original logo of the digital currency, which was purportedly designed to be a more accessible version of Bitcoin, used a cartoon version of the rapper's face with his trademark windowpane sunglasses.

By Veronica Linares
Kanye West and Jay-Z. UPI/Jim Ruymen
1 of 4 | Kanye West and Jay-Z. UPI/Jim Ruymen | License Photo

NEW YORK, July 28 (UPI) -- Kanye West was named the victor in his lawsuit against the creators of a scrypt-based cryptocurrency bearing his name and face, thus ending the run of Coinye West.

Documents filed in New York on July 22 state the rapper won the case by default given that the several Joe and Jane Does named in suit failed to respond to West's cease-and-desist order and complaints filed earlier this year.

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The original logo of the digital currency, which was purportedly designed to be a more accessible version of Bitcoin, used a cartoon version of the rapper's face with his trademark windowpane sunglasses.

West's team said in January the defendants "usurped West's name and likeness for the sole purpose of propping up the perceived 'value' of the defendants' 'digital coin mine' and its 'crypto currency'." After the "I Am a God" rapper filed the papers the team changed the name of the currency to just Coinye and registered their website's domain in India.

While the website coinyecoin.org, still invites people to "Start using CoinyeCoin today," Billboard reports the project was abandoned in January.

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West amended his lawsuit in March to include that the defendants who "cowardly sought to remain anonymous by using Registry privacy services and other means" to stay hidden, came from all over the world including the United States, China, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Slovakia.

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