Kanye West responds to Coinye West infringement

File this in the “sad but true” category:  even blatant intellectual property infringements can create a successful PR stunt.  Apparently, the handful of people behind the virtual currency company calling itself “Coinye West” have refused to back down, though they apparently did drop “West” from the name.

As I teach in my Right of Publicity classes, context matters.  Dropping West from the name at this stage does nothing to reduce liability, and really only confirms that the infringer knew the activity was an infringement in the first place.  There also is that small detail of a rendering of Kanye West appearing on the “coin” itself.

I don’t normally take sides in these matters, and Kanye is himself no stranger to either controversy or PR manipulation; nevertheless, this kind of blatant infringement is the sort of thing that the Right of Publicity exists to address.  Perhaps after a legal ruling comes down, the cost of the infringement will be massively more than the PR (or venture capital funding behind the company?) was worth.

We’ll see what happens next.  Here’s a link to the letter sent by Kanye West’s attorneys:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/20140107-WSJ-coinye.pdf