Saad Ullah
Electronic, Not Crypto
The filing, made by a certain Mr. Nam-jin, has been made in both English and Korean. According to the documentation of the trademark attempt, the filing has been made under different categories, all related to computer programs, such as “electronic money card”, “downloadable electronic money computer program” and even “electronic encryption device”. The filing categorizes the trademark and its application for electronic use, but does not mention any cryptocurrency, digital tokens or blockchain.
The filing has been made at a time when Samsung, the electronics giant, is developing its own private blockchain that is based off the Ethereum platform. The considering that the mobile giant has already launched mobiles with built in crypto wallet; it is safe to assume that they will also be launching a coin to monetize services. The attempt by the Korean resident to trademark Samsung Coin is clearly an attempt to later sell it off to the electronics firm for a hefty price.
In its clarification, a representative of Samsung denied that they had filed for the trademark, telling that they did not work that way.
Other Blockchain Patent Attempts
Digging deeper into the data of KIPO, it is revealed that Mr. Nam-jin has already made one similar attempt in the same month. This time, he tried to get copyrights of “ThinQ Wallet”. ThinQ Wallet is a crypto wallet by another South Korean electronics giant, LG. Mr. Nam-jin was unlucky this time, since he filed his application on July 10, while LG had already done so a week earlier on 2ndJuly.
According to the filing of LG, ThinQ Wallet would provide a wide range of cryptocurrency related services, such as “mobile electronic wallet for cryptocurrency”.
The recent ventures by Mr. Nam-jin is just a small example on how much people will go to make a quick buck. Although the motivation behind his move is not clear yet, the South Korean man can clearly have only two reasons. Either he intended to get the trademark for himself and then rent out to the corporations, getting royalty or even selling it off for a profit. The other reason could be that he would use it in frauds, pushing a digital token with a name of the electronics company to fleece unsuspecting individuals.
This incident goes to show how people can be duped into investing in coins or platforms that offer them a huge return on investment but take away their money, leaving them with tokens that are useless. At times, the scammers exit even before the tokens are distributed, usually right after they collect money from initial coin offering (ICO) stage.
Saad Ullah
