Athene, a US-based monetary companies firm based in 1896, has sued the Athene Community Ponzi scheme for trademark infringement, unfair competitors and cybersquatting.
In its Could 14th filed Arizona Criticism, Athene describes itself as “an Iowa company” that “manages a number of billions of {dollars}’ price of invested belongings”.
Athene claims it “distinguishes itself from different monetary companies firms with its distinctive logos and branding.”
To guard its funding within the ATHENE identify and the integrity of that model within the minds of shoppers, Athene has constructed a sturdy portfolio of trademark registrations, area identify registrations, and social media usernames for the ATHENE Marks, protecting the U.S. and a number of other international jurisdictions.
Athene alleges is turned conscious of Athene Community in late January 2024, primarily via “@ mentions” on social media.
Athene’s customer support group additionally acquired an inflow of emails from Defendant’s customers, who had apparently been locked out of their “Athene accounts” (which means, the accounts that they had created with Defendant’s ATHENE-branded cell software) and
who had been beneath the mistaken perception that the app originated with Athene.
In BehindMLM’s February seventh, 2024 Athene Community assessment, we famous the Ponzi scheme threatened customers who withdrew an excessive amount of with account termination.
Upon investigating the matter, Athene found that Defendant was providing a cell software and repair involving the mining, alternate, and transmission of cryptocurrency, together with a associated ATH-branded cryptocurrency coin.
Citing obfuscation of who’s working Athene Community and promotion on social media, Athene asserts
These actions present concerted efforts by Defendant to make use of Athene’s logos to confuse, mislead, and deceive shoppers into believing that Defendant’s ATHENE-branded web site, social media accounts, and cell purposes are managed by, related to, licensed by, or related to Athene.
Defendant’s use of the ATHENE trademark within the Athene.Community area identify and the assorted social media usernames it registered had been an try to revenue from the identify and goodwill related to Athene, permitting Defendant to present the impression to shoppers that it was backed by and affiliated with a multi-billion greenback, publicly held U.S. company.
Athene states it despatched Athene Community a stop and desist in February 2024.
When Defendant didn’t reply to the cease-and-desist letter, Athene proceeded to file takedown requests with the Apple App Retailer, the Google Play Retailer, and a number of other outstanding social networks, asking the platforms to take away accounts arrange by Defendant, which featured the ATHENE registered trademark.
A lot of these accounts have since been taken down because the platforms evaluated Athene’s claims and agreed that buyers had been more likely to be confused by Defendant’s conflicting use of the ATHENE trademark with out authorization.
BehindMLM notes that at time of publication, Athene Community remains to be out there on each the Google Play Retailer and Apple App Retailer.
Nonetheless, Athene claims Athene Community responded to its Apple App Retailer take-down request on February twenty first.
The response was signed by “Staff Dev”.
Within the weeks that adopted, Athene exchanged quite a few emails with Staff Dev, wherein it repeatedly requested fundamental details about the corporate for functions of negotiating an amicable decision, together with affirmation of Defendant’s firm identify, firm handle, and nation of incorporation, in addition to the identify and title of the officer who would signal an settlement on Defendant’s behalf.
Defendant took lively steps to hide its true id and the id of its brokers, and in e mail correspondence to Athene, indicated that it meant to proceed willfully infringing the ATHENE Marks.
Even after receiving Athene’s cease-and-desist letter and exchanging quite a few messages with Athene’s counsel in reference to the takedown efforts, Defendant continued to make use of the Athene trademark on and in reference to the promotion of its services, and it took no steps to forestall client confusion from occurring, regardless of having precise data of Athene’s rights within the ATHENE trademark and being conscious that precise confusion had occurred.
In in search of injunctive aid, Athene argues that until granted shoppers shall be misled, its fame shall be broken and it’s “disadvantaged … of the flexibility to manage the usage of its logos”.
Reduction Athene seeks embody:
- damages equal to 3 occasions Athene Community’s earnings;
- disgorgement and restitution equal to “all earnings” Athene Community “obtained via the usage of Athene’s logos”;
- an injunction prohibiting Athene Community from additional utilizing the trademark “Athene”;
- $2.5 million in compensatory damages for trademark infringement and unfair competitors;
- $2.5 million in compensatory damages for cybersquatting (in relation to Athene Community’s web site domains);
- prejudgment and postjudgment curiosity; and
- authorized prices
As at time of publication Athene Community has not responded to Athene’s filed lawsuit.
As of April 2024, SimilarWeb tracked 11.3 million month-to-month visits to Athene Community’s web site. Whether or not this visitors is manipulated or not is unclear.
Cited high sources of visitors to Athene Community’s web site are Vietnam (38%), Pakistan (11%), Russia (8%), Bangladesh (5%) and Nigeria (5%).
Keep tuned for updates as BehindMLM continues to trace the case.