The Lawsuit May Cause A Problem for Facebook’s Diem a Month Before the Launch
On Dec 08, 2020
The lawsuit may delay the rebranding plan of the Libra Association. The finance app Diem claims that Facebook steals the name of the company.
As we know, Facebook had plans about changing the name of Libra Association to the Diem Association. They announced it with the press release on 1 December. It is the cryptocurrency project of Facebook. It will be stablecoin and derive its value from the dollar. Their purpose of rebranding the Libra Association is to get rid of a negative impression when it was released first. Impression was about regulatory considerations toward association. They find the solution in changing the name to the Diem, which translates to “day” from the Latin language, and it will be the beginning of the new day for them. They were planning to launch the project in January 2021.
Reaction from Diem
Rebranding the Libra was a good idea but changing it to Diem was problematic. There is another startup with the same name. Finance app Diem told the Sifted that they are threatening Facebook by lawsuit due to the copying the name. The CEO of the Diem, Geri Cupi, commented about the case in the statement:
“We were flabbergasted on 1st December to find that Facebook’s Libra Foundation had chosen to rebrand to Diem. As a small startup, we are concerned that customer confusion resulting from Libra’s actions will significantly impact our growth.”
We can conclude that it is the second time that they want to launch a cryptocurrency, and they face hardships. Investor in Diem, Adelsbach, commented: “They (Facebook) took the view that we can just crush them, we are Facebook.”
Diem commenced the activities in October. Diem is the finance app that you can sell your belongings without waiting for others to bid for it. They want to make selling things online as fast as possible. The slogan of the company is “Your Bank of Things.” Till now, they have half a million followers on Instagram. The CEO worries that the name will cause misconceptions among the customers.
Till now, there is not an official statement by Facebook.
