Reddit Sued by Founder of Meme Stock Driver WallStreetBets
The founder of WallStreetBets, the Reddit chat forum that fueled the 2021 meme stock frenzy, sued the social media platform for ousting him from the online community.
Jaime Rogozinski claims that after he applied for a trademark for WALLSTREETBETS in March 2020, he was banned from moderating the forum he created in 2012. Reddit is asserting ownership over chat forum brands on its platform as it plans to go public, according to the complaint Rogozinski filed Wednesday in federal court in Oakland, California.
The suit, which includes allegations of breach of contract and trademark infringement, comes three years after Rogozinski was barred by Reddit and two years after participants in WallStreetBets helped set off a trading frenzy in a short-seller squeeze targeting GameStop.
“This is a completely frivolous lawsuit with no basis in reality,” said a spokesperson for Reddit. “Jaime was removed as a moderator of r/WallStreetBets by Reddit and banned by the community moderators for attempting to enrich himself. This lawsuit is another transparent attempt to enrich himself.”
Rogozinski alleges Reddit seized “control over his creation” as he pushed to build the forum's brand by launching a book “WallStreetBets: How Boomers Made the World's Biggest Casino for Millennials” and a WALLSTREETBETS-branded esports competition in the first quarter of 2020.
He was terminated as a moderator of his forum after Reddit claimed he violated company policy by “attempting to monetize a community,” according to the suit. But “Reddit's justification was a pretext — people use Reddit to market and sell everything from investment advice to bodily fluids,” he said in the complaint, adding that he never had any “moderation-for-compensation
Read more on tech.hindustantimes.com
