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Crypto exchanges in India are not just fighting regulators for their business operations, but also against other businesses who are either infringing on their trademarks or are accusing the exchanges of infringement.

Here are two cases I discovered of trademark infringement by/against Crypto Exchanges:

1. ZebPay Vs ZebApp

ZebPay is an Indian Cryptocurrency exchange which has had its share of ownership transferred several times since its inception in 2015. It is widely regarded as one of the most popular crypto exchanges in India. And someone tried to gain an advantage from its name.

ZebApp DeFi Ecosystem launched their ZEB Token. Obviously, the name did not set well with ZebPay and they dragged the founders of ZebApp to court.

Honourable Delhi High court actually issued an injunction on August 27, 2020, against ZebApp from using “Zeb Protocol”, “Zeb tokens”, and “ZebApp” as those are derivates of the “ZebPay” trademark that Awlencan Innovations India (ZebPay’s parent company) holds.

However, they had to petition once again in March 2021 to enforce this. Today, the social profiles and the website around ZebApp and its co-founders are no longer visible. There is just one website that still holds the data of ZebApp’s roadmap, their team and Whitepaper.

Same to say, ZebPay won.

2. Kuber Tobacco Vs CoinSwitch Kuber

In December 2021, Kuber Tobacco Products Pvt. Ltd. filed a trademark infringement suit against CoinSwitch Kuber. CoinSwitch Kuber is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in India. According to reports, they are now gearing up towards building several wealth management products in non-crypto markets.

Kuber Tobacco alleges that they hold the trademark for the word “Kuber” since 1984 and that CoinSwitch only began to use it in October 2020.

The case is still pending in Delhi High Court with the next date of listing set to September 20, 2022.

On this note, let’s do a poll.

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