In a recent interview, Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, announced that he was going to launch a new social media platform in the next few weeks. However, the yet-to-be launched social media platform is already facing legal challenges.
Lindell planned to call his social media platform “Vocl.” However, there is already a website that calls itself “Vocal,” and its publicly traded parent company Creatd Inc. sent a letter to Lindell demanding that he changes the name of his social media platform and give up ownership of the Vocl.com domain name. The letter, reviewed by the Daily Beast, warned that failure to comply with the demands would result in a lawsuit.
Lindell’s “Vocl” is a platform that will be a “cross between Twitter and YouTube.” Speaking to Insider, Lindell said, “It’s not like anything you have seen before. It’s all about being able to be vocal again and not to be walking on eggshells.”
On the other hand, Vocal is a publishing platform similar to Medium, where writers can publish and monetize articles. Creatd has the trademark for using “Vocal” in several social networking-related ways, including “online networking services” and creating “virtual communities.”
“It is clear that you are acting with bad faith and with intent to profit from Creatd’s mark,” the letter states. Creatd is worried that “Vocl,” a platform that would entertain conspiracy theories, will “tarnish” the reputation of the Vocal brand. The company not only wants Lindell to change the name and give up the domain name but also to pull down any products using Vocl branding.
Basically the company does not want Lindell to ever use a name that resembles “Vocal.”
“Creatd is prepared to take all steps necessary to protect Creatd’s valuable intellectual property rights, without further notice to you,” the letter states.
On Friday morning, when asked about the letter, Lindell said, “It has nothing to do with their trademark. I haven’t even launched yet. But it has nothing to do with us.”
The Trump ally, who is currently facing a 1.3 billion lawsuit for claiming Dominion, a company that provides voting software, helped Biden rig the election, said that “Vocl” is an acronym.
“Ours stands for the ‘Victory of Christ’s Love,’” he said.
However, on Friday afternoon, he told the Daily Beast, he would be changing the name.
“We looked into it, and we believe it would be confusing, so we are going to announce a different name and URL by Monday.”
