Alibaba rebuffed in trademark suit against Alibabacoin

A federal judge has rejected a trademark complaint by e-commerce giant Alibaba against cryptocurrency firm Alibabacoin Foundation over the similarity of their names.

Judge Paul Oetken ruled that Alibaba failed to show that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has jurisdiction over Dubai-based Alibabacoin, CoinDesk reported, citing court documents.

Alibaba alleged in a lawsuit filed in April that Alibabacoin was trying to mislead investors by implying that the e-commerce company was involved with the cryptocurrency firm. The e-commerce company has said misuse of its name helped Alibabacoin to raise more than $3.5 million in an initial coin offering.

Alibabacoin, also known as the ABBC Foundation, has maintained that the character Ali Baba from “Arabian Nights” is the inspiration for its name, not the e-commerce company, as Cointelegraph reported.

The e-commerce company plans to submit a new complaint, according to a spokesperson.

"Alibaba Group is not affiliated with the ABBC Foundation," the spokesperson said in a comment e-mailed to FOX Business. "The court’s ruling on April 30 was with respect to jurisdiction. We will be submitting a new motion and are confident we will be able to put an end to this willful, concerted and unlawful scheme by the ABBC Foundation to exploit Alibaba Group trademarks.”