The elector.ton user sells the @dodopizza username and its corresponding channel on the Fragment platform for $1.02 million (155 555 TON). Representatives of the pizza chain of the same name sued the Telegram messenger in an attempt to secure ownership of the lot for themselves, writes RBC.
The claim was filed with the Arbitration Court of the Komi Republic in April. Dodo Franchising demands to recognize the actions of Telegram FZ-LLC as acts of unfair competition, transfer the name @dodopizza to them, and also prohibit the purchase of usernames identical or confusingly similar to the trademarks of the copyright holders in the terms of use.
For the TON cryptocurrency, you can buy any channel name, even if it belongs to a well-known brand. Because of this, there may be precedents of extortion from copyright holders, and for "huge sums," explains Alexandra Akimov, senior IP and Privacy lawyer at Dodo Pizza.
According to her, Telegram does not respond to requests from copyright holders and does not control the procedure in any way.
"The essence of our lawsuit is the presence of such a field of activity for scammers, since the current Telegram rules are fraught with reputational risks for bona fide market participants," she added.
The @dodopizza username was originally purchased in November 2022 for 1865 TON. In June 2023, it was moved to the elector.ton address. The same user owns a huge number of other usernames and TON DNS, including those associated with well-known brands, for example, @sbertech, @wildberries, @notcoinbot and others.
At the time of writing, 2,706 people have subscribed to the aforementioned DODO PIZZA channel.
Earlier, ForkLog reported that the Telegram username @pavel, bought for $80,000, was given to Pavel Durov.