{"id":33022,"date":"2020-12-08T14:33:41","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T12:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=33022"},"modified":"2025-08-28T11:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:42:12","slug":"facebook-threatened-with-lawsuit-over-libra-rebrand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/facebook-threatened-with-lawsuit-over-libra-rebrand\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook threatened with lawsuit over Libra rebrand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Adelsbach, co-founder of fintech startup Diem, threatened to sue Facebook over the use of a similar name in renaming Libra Association. This was <a href=\"https:\/\/sifted.eu\/articles\/facebook-legal-pressure-diem\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported<\/a> by Sifted.<\/p>\n<p>Despite concerns about an imminent legal battle with Facebook, the platform sought legal counsel and nevertheless decided to file the suit.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cFacebook would not have needed much effort to determine whether there is another Diem in the financial services space. They clearly believed they could simply steamroll us,\u201d said Adelsbach.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Diem CEO Jerry Koubi noted that his company was \u201cstunned\u201d to learn of Libra Association&#8217;s intention to rename itself to Diem.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cOur small startup is concerned that customer confusion resulting from Libra&#8217;s actions will significantly impact our growth,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Diem is awaiting a response from Facebook in the form of a so-called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.netinbag.com\/ru\/business\/what-does-it-mean-to-cease-and-desist.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cease-and-desist letter<\/a>. The startup did not specify against which legal entity it intends to sue: the London-based Facebook or the Diem Association in Geneva.<\/p>\n<p>The London-based Diem startup was launched in October 2020 and has since attracted half a million subscribers. The platform allows users to instantly sell goods online and issues debit cards.<\/p>\n<p>Facebook announced plans to rebrand Libra on December 1. On the same day, the Libra Association, which was developing the digital currency, <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/libra-association-renamed-to-diem-association\">changed its name<\/a> to Diem Association.<\/p>\n<p>The rebranding reflects the organization\u2019s bid to distance itself from the original model of the global stablecoin introduced in June 2019, which provoked regulators\u2019 ire worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>Later, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz described the renamed Libra <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/germanys-finance-minister-brands-libras-renaming-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing\">\u00abwolf in sheep&#8217;s clothing\u00bb<\/a> and said that the company would need \u201cmore than a rebranding\u201d to ease regulators\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n<p>In May, Facebook rebranded the wallet for Libra, renaming it from Calibra to Novi. This followed complaints by fintech startup Current over the use of a similar logo.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">this is what happens when you only have 1 crayon left <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2JY5JfesQD\">pic.twitter.com\/2JY5JfesQD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Current (@current) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/current\/status\/1141459729505562626?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 19, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Follow ForkLog news on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/forklog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Adelsbach, co-founder of fintech startup Diem, threatened to sue Facebook over using a similar name in renaming the Libra Association. This was reported by Sifted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1162,2049,611,1089],"class_list":["post-33022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-court-cases","tag-diem-association","tag-facebook","tag-libra"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"25","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33024,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33022\/revisions\/33024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}