Athene Annuity and Life Company won a victory in court last week over use of the name "Athene" by a cryptocurrency company, Athene Group Ltd.
Senior U.S. District Judge Stephen McNamee issued an order that calls for the Athene crypto business to stop using Athene's trademarks and requires the crypto business to pay Athene Annuity $100,000 in damages.
The managers of the Athene crypto business "'willfully and egregiously used cybersquatting to profit from plaintiffs' marks," McNamee wrote in a discussion of the order. "They used false contact information to conceal their identities."
Athene Annuity declined to comment on the order.
Representatives for the Athene crypto business could not immediately be reached for comment.
Athene Annuity: Athene is a West Des Moines, Iowa-based annuity issuer and reinsurer.
It's a subsidiary of Athene Holding, which, in turn, is a subsidiary of Apollo Global Management.
Athene Annuity reported making $9.5 billion in U.S. individual annuity sales in the first quarter, and it was the leader in first-quarter individual annuity sales, according to LIMRA survey data.
Athene Group: Athene Group is a company based in Birmingham, England, that started up in 2023 and runs the $ATN cryptocurrency program.
The market capitalization of the $ATN coins on the market was dropped to about $200 this month, from about $20,000 in June, according to CoinGecko, a crypto market information service.
The suit: Athene Annuity filed a complaint against the Athene cryptocurrency business in May in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.
Athene Annuity told the court that it had registered the name Athene, and many related names, website domain names and social media user names.
Athene Group has caused Athene Annuity irreparable by using Athene trademarks in "connection with a crypto business of questionable legitimacy," according to Athene Annuity's complaint.
Athene Annuity accused the Athene crypto business of federal trademark infringement, unfair competition and cybersquatting.
Athene Annuity said it should get an award of at least $2.5 million because the crypto business had squatted on more than 25 Athene-related domain names.
The federal Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act provides for up to $100,000 in damages for each instance of cybersquatting.
Athene Annuity said it exchanged emails with the Athene crypto business but was unable to get confirmation of the name of the crypto business, the mailing address, the country of incorporation or the names of the business's officers. Representatives for the crypto business never appeared in court.
Because the crypto business did not defend itself, the judge had a magistrate judge review the case and prepare a report on the case.
The magistrate judge said in a report footnote that a process server had tried to deliver documents related to the suit to the Athene crypto business's registered offices in Birmingham.
"The process server spoke to an individual over the doorbell intercom at the address who disavowed any knowledge of defendants' business or defendants' named director on file with Companies House," according to the footnote.
The process server ended up leaving the documents in the mailbox at the Athene crypto business's registered office service address.
Primary domain names: A website "URL," or address, can include a "primary domain name," such as http://www.thinkadvisor.com, and a post-domain path, such as the text string "life-health"in the URL https://www.thinkadvisor.com/life-health/.
Users of social media services may have "vanity URLs," such as the text string "think_allison" that follows https://x.com in the URL for the Think_Allison X.com X feed.
The Athene cryptocurrency business has used "Athene" in many "vanity URLs," such as https://www.facebook.com/Athene.Network, and and in many post-domain paths, such as https://apps.apple.com/us/app/athene-network/id6473136372, according to McNamee's order.
But the Athene crypto business used "Athene" in just one primary domain name — Athene.Network — and Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act protection applies only to primary domain names, not to post-domain paths, the judge wrote.
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