Mark Longo’s legal team sent cease and desist letters to Binance after it added the PNUT meme coin to its listings. Longo’s lawyers alleged that Binance is infringing on intellectual property rights via the token.
The original owner of Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT), Mark Longo, announced in a recent post that he plans to issue more cease and desist letters on the grounds of “unauthorized use of my intellectual property” after the one his lawyers sent to Binance.
Around the time when Longo announced he was taking legal action against Binance, Longo’s own token JUSTICE (For Pnut and Fred) surged over 200% according to DEX Screener. At the time of writing, Longo’s JUSTICE token or JFP has gone up by 32% in the past 24 hours. It currently holds a market cap of $361,000 and a liquidity of $108,000.
In contrast, according to data from crypto.news, PNUT has gone down by 6.5% in the past 24 hours of trading. Though, it still maintains a market cap of over $1 billion.
In the letter included in his post, Longo’s legal team stated that he has “exclusive rights” under the U.S copyright laws over the image and name featured on the PNUT token. The icon shows a picture of the now-deceased Peanut wearing a cowboy hat, taken from one of Longo’s social media accounts.
“This is the first of multiple cease and desist letters to be issued. I’m committed to protecting my creative work and sending a clear message: unauthorized use of my IP will not be tolerated,” wrote Longo on his X account, @Squirrel_Dad12.
Most recently, Coinbase revealed its asset roadmap which included the PNUT meme coin on Dec. 11. It remains to be seen whether the major exchange will still proceed with its PNUT listing after Longo’s warning to Binance.
Binance listed the Peanut the Squirrel meme coin on its platform last month on Nov. 11 at 10:00 UTC. Shortly after, PNUT witnessed a “god candle” chart topping moment as the Binance listing raised its price to as high as 478%.
Following the listing, Longo’s lawyers asked Binance to stop using the infringing photograph owned by Longo as well as the trademarked Peanut the Squirrel on the exchange platform.
“You are hereby notified that its unlawful copying of the PNUT Image in the advertisement, distribution, and sale of cryptocurrency infringes upon our client’s exclusive copyrights,” wrote Sara M. Dorchak in a letter addressed to Sandra Epp Ryan, the Attorney of Record for Binance Holdings Limited.
In the letter, Dorchak explained that Longo’s team submitted an application for registration of the copyrighted IP to the United States Copyright office. Therefore, when it is officially registered, the use of Peanut’s image on the Binance platform will fall under violation of the U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C.
This is not the first time Longo has threatened to take legal action against parties that hold PNUT over copyright infringement. On Nov. 25, he accused the PNUT community of unlawfully taking advantage of his pet’s story without including him and his non-profit initiatives.
Therefore, Longo launched his own token that he named JUSTICE (For Pnut and Fred) as a way to assert control over his narrative and denounce the PNUT community.
Mark Longo saved Peanut from a car accident and shared their experiences on an Instagram account dedicated to Peanut and a raccoon named Fred. However, the New York City Department of Environmental Conservation later seized the animals from Longo’s residence following anonymous complaints.
The PNUT token was created in honor of Peanut after the squirrel died from being euthanized by authorities.
