Earlier this month, the social media giant Facebook-backed encryption project Libra announced that it was renamed Diem, but this may lead to a lawsuit.
According to Sifted, the London-based financial technology startup Diem threatened to initiate a lawsuit against Facebook and its partners, arguing that the new term Libra constituted an infringement to the company.
According to a previous report by “Beijing”, the Libra project has encountered various obstructions from regulatory agencies since its announcement in June 2019, so that many founding companies have withdrawn successively and released a revised white paper in April 2020. However, this failed to alleviate the concerns of regulators, so Facebook’s subsidiary Calibra, which participated in the project, announced that it was renamed Novi, and Libra also announced that it was renamed Diem to achieve decoupling from Facebook.
This new name means “Day” in Latin, and the organization hopes to enter a new stage after the name change. “The Diem Association will continue to pursue the establishment of a safe, reliable and compliant payment system that can be used by people and companies all over the world.” Diem Association CEO Stuart Levey said, “This new name marks the maturity and maturity of this project. independent.”
However, the British company Diem has been the first to use this name. The Diem app has been online since October this year and has nearly 500,000 followers on Instagram. The application advertises itself as a digital dictionary dealer, which allows users to sell their items in a short period of time without providing users with instant debit card and account services.
Diem founder and CEO Geri Cupi said, “On December 1, we were surprised to find that Facebook’s Libra Association chose to rebrand as Diem. As a small start-up company, we are worried that Libra’s behavior will seriously affect our growth. .”
Although it will be an uphill battle for a small fintech company to compete with a social media giant like Facebook, Diem supporters are ready. Chris Adelsbach, a European financial technology investor and Diem supporter, said that after careful consideration, legal experts recommended that the company protect its own brand.
Adelsbach said, “Facebook can easily find out if there is another Diem in the financial services sector. They are obviously too arrogant.”
According to a report by “Beijing”, Diem plans to launch a stable currency pegged to the US dollar in 2021, but this lawsuit may affect its product launch schedule.
