Kanye West Issues Cease-and-Desist Letter to Block Coinye

Kanye West has unleashed his attorneys on a company that’s producing a digital currency bearing his likeness. The rapper-producer issued a cease-and-desist order against Coinye, a bitcoin featuring West’s face as a fish with sunglasses and a gold chain.

According to the Wall Street Journal, West’s attorney, Brad Rose, is accusing the anonymous creators of trademark infringement, cyber piracy and unfair competition.

"The Coinye West mark is substantially similar to the Kanye West mark in sight, sound, meaning and commercial impression," the letter reads. "Your clear intent is to trade upon the goodwill associated with the Kanye West mark and Mr. West's international fame and notoriety."

Surprisingly, the secretive designers behind Coinye have already moved forward with distributing the bitcoin despite threats from West’s lawyer. They also have moved the website from a .com domain to one registered in India.

"We want to release this to the public before the man can try to crush it,” said one of the techies in a Skype interview with WSJ. "They'll still come after us, but that's OK."

While the Kanye West-looking currency appears to be an elaborate joke, this is a serious matter.

Bitcoins have become exceedingly popular within the crypto-currency community with some businesses in the U.S. accepting it as a form of payment.

West may be the first celebrity to ever have his face appear on a digital coin that’s still under scrutiny by different governments. So you can understand why Yeezy wants to put a stop to it.

If the makers don’t comply, Rose plans to notify the crypto-currency community of their infringement and "pursue all legal remedies against any business that accepts the purported COINYE WEST currency."

What do you make of the Coinye West currency? Tell us in the comments below.