In today’s live breaking news, Mr. Jaime Rogozinski filed a complaint against Reddit in the district court in California’s Northern District for infringing his rights to trademark the brand of WallStreetBets and removing him from his role as a moderator of WallStreet Bets. He accused the social media platform of betraying him. A spokeswoman for Reddit, reacting to the lawsuit, said his claims are frivolous and baseless. 

Reddit says Jaime tried to enrich himself

According to a Reddit spokesperson, Jamie, the founder, was removed from his role as moderator of WallStreetBets in 2020 after it was discovered that he was attempting to enrich himself. Other moderators at WallStreetBets also banned him for his attempts at personal gain. The community gained popularity without his involvement, and he is filing the lawsuit after three years of his removal as a moderator. A spokeswoman for Reddit said the company will respond to his claim in court while protecting the interests of moderators and communities on its platform.

Jaime established WallStreetBets in 2012 to discuss trading. Its main aim was also to engage in gambling and have fun. In an interview, Jaime said the platform had had a relatively calm community for several years. Commissions for trading stocks were eliminated by brokerages such as Charles Schwab Corp., TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., and Fidelity Investments in 2019. Following WallStreetBets, interest in retail trading increased significantly in the aftermath of 2019.

Jaime published a book in early 2020 that discusses how many millennials treated stocks just like casinos. He also created a link to the book listing on Amazon on the WallStreetBets forum. Jaime also said a live trading competition would be held on WallStreetBets and True Trading Group would sponsor the live trading competition. He also posted posts that promoted the championship on WallStreetBets and they were deleted.

In April 2020, Reddit suspended Jaime’s account because he attempted to make personal monetary gains. According to its policy, moderators are prohibited from signing agreements with third parties. After a week, Reddit reinstated Jaime’s account, and later it was permanently removed for violating its terms. WallStreetBets’ remaining moderators also permanently banned Jaime from participating in its forum.

Jaime filed an appeal against Reddit’s decision

Jaime has repeatedly challenged Reddit’s decision, claiming that there is no provision in its policy prohibiting such behavior. Reddit claimed that Jaime was posting links to his book on the platform to monetize the community for his gains. It is evident from his interview. 

Countering the claim of Reddit, Jaime said in his lawsuit that the Reddit community was used by Fidelity to improve awareness about its products and services. Reddit did not consider it an issue. Jaime also claimed the users of WallStreetBets do not have permission to act as moderators as per its policy, solicit favors from third parties, or seek any compensation. In the lawsuit, he said he never claimed or accepted the payment for acting as moderator of the WallStreetBets forum.

According to information in the BNN News Network, Jaime’s appeals were denied, and he was permanently barred from the moderator role on WallStreetBets.Both Reddit and WallStreetBets’s creator – Jaime are at odds about who owns the rights to the brand. Before his ousting from WallStreetBets form, he applied to own the trademark rights in 2020. Reddit opposed the move and applied against his trademark registration in August 2020.