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A cryptocurrency inspired by the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy was banned on Tuesday. The family and estate author of JRR Tolkien — the writer of the trilogy — took legal action against the cryptocurrency’s creators.

Matthew Jensen a Florida-based developer created the digital currency “JRR Token” and launched it in August 2021. However, the Tolkien’s estate brought a copyright infringement complaint to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) within weeks. The complaint stated that the digital currency’s website included references to the writer’s fantasy fiction series such as characters and other pictures. 

The complaint included the domain name used “www.jrrtoken.com”. The WIPO arbitration was in favor of Tolkien’s estate. According to a press release — by the Tolkein family’s lawyers — Maier Blackburn Solicitors — on Tuesday, the token creator should immediately remove the token and any content referring to the series across its website and social platforms.

512 investors traded the Token

According to BSC scan, the digital currency accumulated 512 wallet addresses since its creation. JRR Token has also listed 9 NTFs (Non-fungible tokens) for sale on the OpenSea marketplace.

"This was a particularly flagrant case of infringement, and the estate is pleased that it has been concluded on satisfactory terms," Steve Maier, of Maier Blackburn Solicitors, said in the statement.

As part of the WIPO arbitration, Jensen had said the domain name was not identical to the Lord of the Rings creator's name. "Specifically, the Complainant's J R R TOLKIEN trademark contains the additional letters "L" and "I" which are conspicuously absent from the disputed domain name. The pronunciation is also different," he said.

The JRR Token's website, Twitter account and YouTube channel have now been deleted.