Lightning Labs and blockchain startup Tari Labs have agreed to convert the court order that halted the development of Lightning’s Taro protocol.
In the March 15 filing, lawyers for both Lightning and Tari proposed converting the restraining order into an injunction. Conversion of the decision into an interim injunction will halt the development of the protocol until the court decision. The two firms have agreed that Lightning will not be able to update the Taro protocol, combine internal updates with the protocol’s publicly available source code, and announce the next phase of the Taro protocol.
Development of Taro Protocol Suspended
However, Lightning is allowed to respond to communications from non-Lightning developers and users, provided they do not use it to further Taro’s development.
The temporary ban was issued on March 13 after Tari Labs said the name Taro infringed its trademark rights because it was too similar to its own protocol, called Tari, a registered trademark in the US. This decision was made by California District Court Judge William Orrick.
With this development, Lightning Labs became unable to update the Taro protocol.
Tari Labs first filed a trademark infringement complaint against Lightning Labs on Dec. In the complaint, he claimed that both firms compete in the same digital blockchain ecosystem and provide the same services in some similar cases.
The news about the banning decision sparked reactions on Twitter. Tari Labs co-founder Richardo Spagni defended the case in a tweet on March 15, saying that the letters I and O were so close together that it caused confusion on the computer keyboard, and that Tari had offered to fund the rebranding of Taro a year ago.