Telegram to pay $625K to Lantah over GRAM trademark lawsuit

• Telegram will pay $625K to Lantah as compensation for expenses incurred during their lawsuit. 
• The messaging application accused the company in 2018 of GRAm trademark infringement.

Last two years, the popular messaging application opened a lawsuit against Lantah, alleging that the cryptocurrency startup infringed the trademark name of its now-dumped token, GRAM. As the messaging platform no longer has the intention to proceed with the token, it voluntarily withdrew from the case. As a result, they have been ordered to pay over $600,000 to compensate the defendant for the expenses incurred so far.

Telegram and Lantah GRAM lawsuit

In the GRAM trademark infringement case, Telegram also accused the cryptocurrency startup of unfair competition, saying that Lantah was also considering launching its token as well, under a crypto-ticker “GRAM.” On the other hand, the defendant opened a countersuit to claimed priority over the trademark name. 

The cryptocurrency company asserted that it filed for the GRAM trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in the past three years.

Amidst the lawsuits, Telegram was also attacked by the US financial regulators over the GRAM token being offered to investors as unregistered securities. Due to the regulatory uncertainty over the token, the messaging decided not to proceed with GRAM token development, which eventually resulted in the development today.

$625K in compensation

As the messaging platform forsake its planned GRAM token, it voluntarily withdrew from the infringement lawsuit. So, in a court ruling on Tuesday, Telegram ordered by a United States district court to pay $618,240 to the crypto startup in compensation for the expenses incurred during the court cases. Lantah argued that its attorneys spent about 1,030.4 hours defending the case and wanted Telegram to pay $900 per hour.

However, the court approved the compensation at the rate of $600 for an hour. The messaging platform was equally asked to pay $6,737.35 to the startup as an additional cost.