Bitcoin (BTC) software firm Lightning Labs and blockchain startup Tari Labs have agreed to transfer a court-ordered temporary injunction halting development of Lightning’s Taro protocol.
On March 15 filingattorneys for both Lightning and Tari proposed converting the restraining order to a preliminary injunction — a temporary order that prevents a party from taking certain actions.
Converting the order to a preliminary injunction would halt development of the protocol until a court decision is reached.
The two companies agreed that Lightning still will not make updates to the Taro protocol, will not merge internal updates with the publicly available open source code of the protocol, and cannot announce or otherwise launch “the next phase or ‘milestone’ of the TARO protocol.”
However, Lightning was allowed to respond to communications from non-Lightning developers and users as long as it did not use those communications to further develop Tara.
It could also refer to Taro as the “previous protocol name” for protocol name change announcements – as long as it was “not confusingly similar” to Taro or Tari.
The temporary injunction was released on March 13 by California District Court Judge William Orrick after Tari Labs said the name “Taro” infringed on its trademark because it was too similar to its own protocol called “Tari” — and registered trademark in the United States.
As a result, Lightning Labs could not make updates to or about the Taro protocol.
Tari Labs first filed a complaint for trademark infringement against Lightning Labs on Dec. 8, alleging that the two firms “compete in the same digital blockchain ecosystem” and provide similar, “in some cases, identical” services.
The two firms also “sell similar to developers and users and appear on the same blockchain platforms,” says Tari.
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News of the injunction sparked backlash on Twitter. Tari Labs co-founder Riccardo Spagni defended the lawsuit, arguing in a March 15 tweet that the letters “I” and “O” are close enough together on a computer keyboard to cause confusion and that Tari offered to fund Tari for a year rebranding. before.
On the contrary – if you don’t protect your trademark, you literally lose it. Also, iao are next to each other on the keyboard; their own board misspelled it. The last thing I will say is that we (1) contacted many years ago, several times, via email / Twitter DM / in person at… https://t.co/k65HU4xKfp
— Ric “fluffypony” (@fluffypony) March 15, 2023
The lawsuit was similarly defended by Tari co-founder Naveen Jain, who, in response to a Twitter user calling the lawsuit “frivolous,” suggested that “it’s hard to call something ‘frivolous’ when a judge issues a temporary injunction in your favor.”
I welcome your opinion. That said, it’s hard to call something “frivolous” when a judge issues a temporary injunction in your favor.
— Naveen (@NaveenSpark) March 16, 2023
Lightning Labs develops software for Lightning Networka layer 2 solution for the bitcoin blockchain that enables transactions that are cheaper and faster than those made at the base layer.
His Taro protocol is an ambitious project that was announced on April 5 in the middle of the night $70 million funding round and plans to build on them Taproot Bitcoin Upgrade and enable the transfer of stablecoins through the Lightning Network.
