The image is from the screen shot of the JRR token.
The World Intellectual Property Organization has declared that the "JRR token" is in violation of a trademark belonging to the estate of author J.R.R. Tolkien.
The JRR token was a project that drew inspiration from The Lord of the Rings. The website featured images of rolling hills and wizards, and there was a promotional video with an actor from the movies making puns about the token going to the moon. It promised a bunch of financial features called "Tokenomics," but the actual details of which were left annoyingly unclear by its white paper and website.
The project went live and the estate issued a complaint.
The complaint was filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization on August 7th, the day after the token went on sale. The project's site, jrrtoken.com, was accused of violating the trademarks of The Lord of the Rings by the estate. You can get a good idea of what's going on by looking at a web archive or a picture of it.
:noupscale is a file on thechorusasset.com
You can see subtle references to Lord of the Rings if you look closely.
Via: The Wayback Machine.
Thetokenofpower.com was based on Wayback Machine archives, but only the former is mentioned in the writeup. Information about the token is no longer on either site.
The lawyers for the token tried to argue that people wouldn't confuse JRR token with JRR Tolkien because the "L" and "I" are different. The response reads in part.
J R R TOLKIEN is not similar to JRR TOKEN. The former is a trademark and the latter is an English word meaning a form of digital currency.
These two words are not the same.
The domain name was registered in bad faith, and the panel didn't think it was meant to be a joke. The fact that it was a commercial enterprise did not help the project's case, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization.
The panel said that the developer's alternate explanation that the "JRR" in "JRR token" actually stood for "Journey through Risk to Reward" was probably a lie. In its own words.
The Panel doesn't know whatJourney through Risk to Reward actually means and why the termjourney is relevant to the purchase of token.
The website was created to trade off the fame of the works.
According to The Guardian, the Tolkien estate is working to remove any online content that is not in line with their standards. The opening scene of The Fellowship of the Ring was one by one, and JRR token's sites and social media accounts fell to the power of international copyright law.
They say there were some that resisted.
The token has survived after a fashion in the form of an OpenSea collection. If you think the main project was biting LotR, just wait until you see the JRR token NFTs.
:noupscale is a file on thechorusasset.com
This may be the last place where JRR token can be found.
:noupscale is a file on thechorusasset.com
I like to say that the bad guys of LotR were pro-centralization, and that my NFTs depict the villains of the story.
NFTs allow you to buy and sell ownership of unique digital items and keep track of who owns them. NFT stands for non-fungible token, and it can contain anything digital, including drawings, animated GIFs, songs, or items in video games. The NFT can be one-of-a-kind, like a real-life painting, or one copy of many, like trading cards, but the blockchain keeps track of who has ownership of the file.
Nyan Cat and the "deal with it" sunglasses are being put up for auction, as NFTs have been making headlines recently. There is a lot of discussion about the massive electricity use and environmental impacts of NFTs. If you still have questions, you can read through our FAQ.
The NFTs weren't mentioned in the case write-up, but the timelines may offer some insight into that. According to the Wayback Machine, the NFTs weren't advertised on JRR token's website until after the complaint was filed by the Tolkien estate.
The NFTs were either listed for sale or transferred to other accounts on September 1st, according to OpenSea, which shows that the NFTs were minted on August 31st. That is the same day that the report says that JRR token filed its response to the complaint. I pray that someday I will be given the confidence of the person who creates NFTs with characters from Lord of the Rings while fighting an intellectual property complaint.
I don't think the Tolkien estate will be happy if they find out about the JRR Token NFTs. This is exactly what I expected to happen, if I am honest. The Eye of Sauron is always watching, but the eye of The Tolkien Estate is even more important and can be ignored.
