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Jack in the Box ends suit against FTX for allegedly stealing its mascot

Jack in the Box and FTX have come to an undisclosed settlement over the mascot related copyright suit, suggesting that the Moon Man’s days may be over in its current form.

Jack in the Box’s lawsuit against FTX US over an alleged mascot-related copyright and trademark infringement has come to an end after the parties reached a settlement.

The duo informed the District Court for the Southern District of California that they had resolved the dispute via a motion to dismiss on Jan. 20, however the specific details of the settlement have not been disclosed.

The popular fast food chain initially filed the suit at the start of November, alleging that the appearance and behavior of FTX US’s “Moon Man” mascot was a rip off of Jack in the Box’s “Jack” mascot that has trademark rights dating back to 1995.

Jack in the Box was initially seeking unspecified damages over allegations related to copyright infringement, trademark dilution, trademark infringement, false designation of origin and unfair competition.

“Rather than spending its vast financial resources to develop its own intellectual property, FTX brazenly and illegally copied or derived its ‘Moon Man’ mascot from JITB’s Jack,” the company alleged in court documents from November.

Cointelegraph reached out to FTX US regarding the details of the settlement, and a representative stated that “the terms of the settlement were not disclosed and there will be no further comment.”

Jack in the Box describes its mascot as “a typical adult human male, with the exception of his large spherical white head, blue dot eyes, nose, and curvy smile,” While FTX US’s mascot depicts a man with a spherical moon head and an open smile.

Separated at birth: Moon Man (left) and Jack (right)

Related: FTX announced as naming rights sponsor of Australian Blockchain Week 2022

FTX’s Moon Man has been featured on TV commercials and at live Major League Baseball games — which the FTX US has a branding partnership with, among others — but depending on the terms of the settlement, his days could be over, or he may look different in future.

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Ethereum alone not enough to disrupt Big Tech: Jack Dorsey

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is doubling down on his Ether skepticism by downplaying the network’s potential to shake up the world of the social media giants.

Twitter CEO and self-professed Bitcoin (BTC) maximalist Jack Dorsey is not giving Ether (ETH) fans an inch. In his latest offhand remark about the market’s second-largest cryptocurrency, Dorsey downplayed the platform’s potential to single-handedly shake up the status quo in Big Tech:

Dorsey’s comment followed an online discussion of the usefulness of a full-blown integration of nonfungible tokens (NFT) into Twitter, which Twitter user Seyitaylor argued would be more to the benefit of Ethereum than to the social media site. 

Dorsey agreed that such a move would be more consequential for the Ethereum ecosystem than for his own platform but added, “Every account on Twitter being able to link to a Lightning wallet however…”

Despite Twitter’s previous dabbles in the world of NFTs — and Dorsey’s own use of the technology to raise money for charity — Dorsey has remained a staunch Bitcoin advocate, much to the frustration of both Ether diehards and less sectarian crypto fans. 

When one Twitter user responded to Dorsey’s comments, pushing him to explain, “Why the ETH hate then if there’s room for more than one piece to the puzzle?” Dorsey’s rejoinder was that “focus on one thing isn’t hate of the others. I’ve made my concerns known about others in comparison to Bitcoin. Key ones are founding principles, security, and centralization.”

Related: No, Jack Dorsey isn't trolling ETH by making its logo the Ethiopian flag

In another Twitter thread, Garry Tan probed the “mystery” of Dorsey’s single-minded preoccupation with Bitcoin, which Timothy Kim proposed was the veteran crypto’s promise to serve as “sound money,” which he claimed was “critical,” “especially for the globally underprivileged.” Dorsey joined the discussion to agree, asserting that he’s in Bitcoin “to help fix the money,” adding he was “not trolling.”

In yet another thread circling the same theme, Dorsey rebuffed claims he was intentionally throwing shade at Ethereum and clarified that for him, “decentralization isn’t an end goal [...] it’s just one method of fixing the money.” Elsewhere on Twitter, Dorsey said that while he agrees with the spirit of NFTs, his advocacy of Lightning in this context had nothing to do with them but rather with “enabl[ing] a currency for the internet.”

This has been a long-time motto of Dorsey’s, who has repeatedly argued that Bitcoin will be the sole currency of the internet since at least 2018. Unlike other Bitcoin fans who concede there could one day be a “flippening” of the two top coins’ fortunes, he has remained, as far as is publicly known, reluctant to invest in the altcoin to this day.

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