The Tolkien estate has smote JRR Token — but the NFTs persist

It seems our prediction that a Almighty of the Rings-themed "JRR Token" cryptocurrency was destined for the fires of Mount Doom was accurate — the World Mental Property Organization (or WIPO) has declared that information technology violated a hallmark belonging to the estate of author J.R.R. Tolkien, and ordered that one of the project's web domains be transferred to it estate (via the Financial Multiplication).

If you'atomic number 75 unfamiliar JRR Token (non Tolkien), hither's the traditional knowledge — it was a cryptocurrency project that drew heavy inhalation from The Lord of the Rings. Its tagline was "The One Token That Rules Them All," its website featured Tolkien-esque imagery of rolling hills and wizards, and at that place was even a promotional video featuring an worker from the movies making Hobbit puns and claiming that the token was going "to the moon around." It promised a bunch of financial features called "Tokenomics," the actual inside information of which were left annoyingly ill-defined by its (Lord of the Rings-themed) white paper and website.

American Samoa some, many people foreseen, all this didn't sit well with the magnificently litigious Tolkien Demesne — IT filed a complaint with WIPO on August 7th, the Clarence Day after the tokens went happening sale. The estate claimed that the project's site, jrrtoken.com, violated its trademarks, and provided paragraphs of detailed explanations about how the website was infringing on The Lord of the Rings. Honestly, though, you can believably get the gist by just looking at a entanglement archive or screenshot of it.

*If you tone intimately, you can see impalpable references to* Lord of the Rings.

(Note: the project also had other site, thetokenofpower.com — based connected Wayback Machine archives, the two sites appear to have had the same content, just simply the former is mentioned in WIPO's writeup. Neither place contains information about the token anymore.)

In its defense, lawyers for the token attempted to argue that people wouldn't confuse JRR Token with JRR J.R.R. Tolkien because the "L" and "I" in Tolkien are "conspicuously absent" in Token, and the two phrases are pronounced differently. The response also reads, in part:

J R R TOLKIEN is not confusingly same to JRR TOKEN. The former is a surname exploited As a stylemark and the latter is an English word significant a form of extremity currency.

Funnily, the WIPO panel (non to be confused with the Council of Elrond), wasn't positive by these arguments, OR by the ones saying it was meant to follow a parody — IT said in its conclusion that the domain name was registered "in big faith," and that it "was selected for the lonesome purpose of creating a false association with" author J.R.R. Tolkien. All the Lord of the Rings references and imagery on the token's website didn't help the project's case either, reported to WIPO, nor did the fact that it was a commercial go-ahead.

The panel also said that the developer's alternate explanation that the "JRR" in "JRR Token" actually stood for "Journey through Risk to Reward" was probably bogus, given that the phrase didn't seem to be used on the site. In its own words:

It is not free to the Panel what "Journey through Risk to Reinforcement" in reality means, and why the term "journey" is relevant to the purchase of tokens.

"There is No doubt that the Respondent was sensitive of J.R.R. Tolkien's works and created a website to trade murder the renown of these works," reads part of the WIPO's decision.

According to The Guardian, the Tolkien estate is directly working to "delete any infringing online content" — and indeed the relic's Twitter account, YouTube channel, and websites come out to live gone. To misquote The Fellowship of the Ring's hatchway scenery: one by single, JRR Token's sites and social media accounts hide to the power of international copyright law.

Simply, as they say, at that place were some that resisted.

Like The One Ring in John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's story, the souvenir has survived after a fashion — in the form of an OpenSea collection. Of course there are JRR Token NFTs, and if you thought the main project was blatantly biting LotR just wait until you fiesta your eyes on these (akin to how Gollum disgustingly feasts on a live Pisces in that unrivaled scene I stock-still hate watching).

*This may be the last harbour for JRR Nominal's online presence.*

*I too have a go at it to claim that the bad guys of LotR were pro-centralization, and then make all my NFTs portray the villains of the news report.*

Interestingly, the NFTs weren't mentioned in the WIPO's sheath write-up, though the timeline may offer some insight into that. As antecedently noted, the Tolkien demesne filed its complaint in rude August, and the NFTs weren't advertised on JRR Tokenish's website until sometime between August 31st and September 11th, according to captures by the Wayback Machine.

Look the blockchain gives us even more precise timing — OpenSea shows that the NFTs were minted happening August 31st, and were either listed for sale or transferred to other accounts on September 1st. That is, by the bye, is the exact same day the WIPO's written report says that JRR Relic filed its reaction to the complaint. I pray that someday I'm granted the confidence (but non the audacity) of the person who creates NFTs with characters from Overlord of the Rings spell scrap an infringement ill from the Tolkien estate.

I'm non sure what will end upwardly happening to the JRR Token NFTs, though I don't imagine the Tolkien estate of the realm will be riant if it finds out about them. As for the rest of the project — if I'm honest, this is beautiful much just what I expected to pass. The Eye of Sauron may be ever open-eyed, but the eye of The Tolkien Estate is even more so — and no more simple minimal can glucinium expected to resist the powers of the WIPO.