When we issued our first wine-backed cyptoasset tokens with OpenVino® in 2018, the Intel corporation tried to claim they were the rightful owners of the OpenVino® trademark. I had, unfortunately, tried to use an online service to register the trademark myself – and it cost me.

I contacted Neil, and he said he would look into it. Neil was able to ‘win’ our trademark dispute by using my blockchain data to prove that we had used the trademark OpenVino® in intrastate and international commerce before Intel had applied for their trademark. Basicially, he proved our “first-use” of OpenVino®. Intel decided to offer to share the international trademark for OpenVino® instead of fighting us. We believe this was the first time anyone in the world had used blockchain data to defend a trademark.

Next, we had Neil establish and defend the trademark for our wine “Mike Tango Bravo” in the United States, fighting back competing claims from the owners of Mike’s Hard Lemonade. In the end, Mike’s Hard Lemonade gave up like Intel.

Taking the “Mike Tango Bravo” registration to the nth degree, Neil’s team helped me change my personal legal name (in Utqiagvik, Alaska, no less!) from “Michael Thomas Barrow” to “Mike Tango Bravo,” as part of my expression of self-sovereign identity. Neither Neil nor I have ever set foot in Alaska. Not to be outdone, we are working towards having the first trademark of a personal name with the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) which includes an Ethereum address created for ProofOfHumanity.id

If you are a web3 buidler, working on blockchain and crypto projects, establishing your DAO, or are a proponent of SSI (self-sovereign identity) – don’t forget to register and defend your identity and trademarks!