Ethereum Token Platform Zora Sues Deloitte Over AI Trademark Dispute

Ethereum token platform Zora has sued Deloitte to stop it from using the “Zora AI” name for its digital workforce AI platform, claiming trademark infringement.

The company also filed a restraining order, which has yet to be granted, that would bar Deloitte from using “Zora,” “Zora AI,” or the Zora.ai domain until the conclusion of the lawsuit.

The token launchpad is seeking actual and punitive damages, and for Deloitte to cover its attorney fees. It also wants Deloitte to transfer the Zora.ai domain.

Zora gained steam during the NFT bull run of 2021-22, raising $50 million in funding in 2022 that valued the firm at $600 million.

More recently, it has functioned as a social media platform that automatically turns every post into a token on Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network, Base. It sparked a flurry of hype after the creator of Base, Coinbase’s Jesse Pollak, went on a “content coin” campaign.

When it launched in April, the ZORA token briefly climbed as high as $0.03438 on its opening day, but has since slumped to $0.009324—down 73% from peak. The token has seen $21.7 million worth of trading volume in the past day and currently has a market cap of $29 million.

Neither Deloitte nor Zora immediately responded to requests from Decrypt for comment.

A letter sent to Deloitte claims its new AI product “wrongly capitalizes on Zora’s goodwill and reputation,” and “creates a false association between Deloitte and Zora and the ZORA Marks.”  Deloitte’s infringements of Zora’s rights must immediately stop, it demands.

Deloitte first started marketing its new AI platform in March, promoting it as a suite of “ready-to-deploy” agents that can augment clients’ workforces. In its press release, the company said Hewlett Packard is already using the tech to analyze its financial statements.

The token launchpad caught wind of the company’s plans and sent a letter asking it to reconsider the name of the product a month before Deloitte started promoting it.

“As you must be aware, Zora is one of the most prominent marketplace platforms in which users can mint, buy, offer for sale, sell, and curate NFTs. Zora provides an innovative AI-driven method, including for consumers to use in creating NFTs and undertaking NFT-related transactions,” the company’s lawyers wrote in a Feb. 14 letter to Deloitte.

The company included a copy of its trademarks, the earliest of which was filed in May 2020. The most recent trademark was granted in March 2025. The trademarks protect the company’s use of “Zora” in relation to downloadable mobile apps or software, cryptocurrency exchange services, and non-downloadable web applications.

Stephen Barrese, a trademark attorney at Dilworth & Barrese, told Decrypt that if Deloitte’s attorneys did a search, they would have seen pending applications for two of Zora’s most recent trademarks.

“Both were filed as ‘intent to use,’ which means that they get a ‘constructive use date’ at the time of filing,” he said, hypothesizing that someone at Deloitte might have missed that detail.

“This explains why Deloitte’s argument is that there’s no way that people would confuse the NFT platform with their digital workforce platform,” Barrese added. “They cannot say that they were unaware of the prior filed applications.”

Sure enough, that’s exactly how Deloitte responded to Zora’s letter a few weeks later.

“We do not believe that you or your client should have any cause for concern,” Deloitte wrote in response. “Our use of ‘Zora AI’ is for different goods and services than those offered by your client, as well as intended for a different audience than your client, such that there would not be any likelihood of consumer confusion.”

A response from Zora in March goes even further, pointing out that Zora has been a client of Deloitte since 2022, and blasts the firm’s “blatant disregard of its clients’ basic intellectual rights.”

The complaint includes an email that notes the token launchpad was being advised by Rob Massey, who’s a tax leader in Deloitte’s blockchain and digital assets practice.

“Rob asked that Zora give him the opportunity to discuss internally and thus hold off on escalating this matter to a court,” Zora attorney Merri Moken wrote in an email last week ahead of the June 9 deadline she’d given Deloitte to respond.

The lawsuit was filed on June 11 in the Southern District of New York and has been assigned to Judge Arun Subramanian.

Edited by Andrew Hayward