Kanye West‘s lawyers have filed cease-and-desist papers against seven anonymous coders behind Coinye West, a virtual currency following in the footsteps of Bitcoin, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The court papers document an image of a cartoon West wearing the Shutter shades from the “Stronger” video on a gold medallion. West’s lawyers say the use of the image is trademark infringement.
“Given Mr. West’s wide-ranging entrepreneurial accomplishments, consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Mr. West is the source of your services,” one of the lawyers in the cease-and-desist papers state.
This is no merchandise from the “Yeezus Tour,” which continues in 2014.
Coinye West actually started as a joke. “We said Coinye West and we were like, ‘Holy… we gotta make that,’” one of the coders said.
Despite legal proceedings, the coders aren’t backing down completely. In fact, the site launched January 7 at 10 p.m. under the name Coinye Coin. A website based in India for Coinye Coin is active despite the pressure. The image has received a makeover. The Kanye lookalike is now on a fish but still rocking the shades.
There’s a chance that Coinye West could take off and become more than an Internet sensation.
“We want to get this into the hands of the public—after that, it’s peer to peer and unstoppable,” the coders said.
[Image: Coinye West Twitter]