Elon Musk’s Tesla is seeking millions from a British teenager who sold a handful of company-branded 3D-printed key fobs.
The 14-year-old is one of several teenagers facing a massive copyright lawsuit from the US giant.
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Elon Musk’s Tesla is seeking millions from a British teenager who sold a handful of company-branded 3D-printed key fobsCredit: Getty
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Tesla claims ‘threats irreparable injury’ Credit: Getty
They must each pay $2m (£1.6m) in damages.
They were accused of “unfair competition” and their online store accounts were frozen.
The demand for $2 million came out of the blue
UK seller
The trademark infringement lawsuit identifies hundreds of products that were advertised on e-commerce sites such as eBay.
It states that Tesla is “suffering irreparable injury.”
Items listed in the evidentiary filings include a short-sleeved T-shirt emblazoned with a drawing of Musk standing next to a Tesla Cybertruck and sunglasses emblazoned with the Tesla logo.
On January 12, 2021, Elon Musk wrote on X/Twitter: “You can steal our name/logo and we probably won’t sue you.”
One UK seller said: “I sold just one Tesla logo hoodie on Etsy and made £3.
“I knew about the Tweet and put it up for sale after tweeting back asking if it was okay to sell the hoodie.
“The demand for $2 million came out of the blue.”
The seller added: “The poor 14-year-old is frozen with fear.
“I wonder what billionaire Elon would think of that?”
Video of first human patient with Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip playing chess ‘thinking’ as ‘telepathy’ controls the game
JET TRACKING ORDER
Musk previously threatened legal action against the student for live-tweeting every time the billionaire took off and landed on his private jet.
Aviation enthusiast Jack Sweeney used publicly available flight tracking information for jets belonging to Musk and other celebrities like Taylor Swift.
Musk initially offered $5,000 to buy the account, which Sweeney declined.
Despite claiming to hold up Twitter/X as a beacon of free speech since taking over the company in 2022, Musk banned the accounts.
To get around the problem, Sweeney resorted to running accounts for jet movements with a 24-hour delay.
MEN’S WEALTH AND BUSINESS DISCOVERED
Elon Musk is the second richest man in the world with a net worth of $196.5 billion.
The 52-year-old co-founded six major companies, including X.com, which eventually became PayPal.
Ebay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion in October 2002.
He used $100 million from the sale to launch SpaceX, one of the world’s leading spaceflight companies, with ambitions to eventually travel to Mars.
The company also provides Starlink Internet services that are broadcast from SpaceX’s satellites.
Musk was also an early investor in Tesla, and is now the electric car giant’s largest shareholder.
One of his most notorious business ventures was the $44 billion takeover of Twitter — which was later rebranded as X in a nod to his early success.
But Musk’s most controversial project is Neuralink, a company that creates technological brain implants to help people with neurological disorders.
The South African-born businessman was the richest man in the world for a while, but lost the crown in 2024.
He also broke the Guinness World Record for the largest loss of personal wealth, which Forbes estimated at around $165 billion.
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: newstars.edu.vn