OpenSea Faces RIAA Complaints Over ENS Domains

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed trademark complaints against the NFT marketplace OpenSea, resulting in the removal of some infringing tokens from the marketplace. OpenSea Delists NFTs This week has been difficult for the NFT marketplace OpenSea. The RIAA claims in a letter that numerous Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains on OpenSea’s marketplace contain names that reference the recording association and its members. The infringing ENS domain names have been removed from OpenSea’s non-fungible token marketplace. According to the RIAA, selling the infringing domain names results in the “dilution, confusion, and tarnishment” of trademarks. Additionally, selling such terms is against the law for cybersquatting, common law publicity rights, and unfair business practices. Along with Universal Music Group, Atlantic Records, Capitol Records, Warner Music Group, Parlophone Records, and Virgin Records, the letter lists 89 domain names. OpenSea Gets Ready For A Slump Today’s news was released immediately after OpenSea declared it would reduce its employment by 20% due to market constraints. Devin Finzer, the CEO and co-founder of OpenSea, stated in a blog post on July 14 that the company needs to get ready for a potential “prolonged downturn” due to the “historic mix of crypto winter and larger macroeconomic uncertainty.” The NFT value marking has decreased significantly this summer as a result of the overall ...