The NGINX dispute took another turn recently, as Lynwood Investments petitioned the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) to cancel six US federal trademark registrations of F5 Networks for the NGINX web server software. F5 acquired NGINX in an M&A transaction in 2019. Lynwood had previously filed notices of opposition to three pending NGINX federal trademark applications being pursued by F5.
This move appears to be the next step in Lynwood’s lawsuit against F5 and others alleging that former employees of Rambler engaged in a skunkworks project to create and later monetize NGINX, before selling it to F5.
Echoing statements in its prior lawsuit, Lynwood alleges that F5 “conducted extensive due diligence” before the acquisition, and therefore knew that the trademark registrations were fraudulent.
F5 will likely file its responses to Lynwood’s TTAB proceedings in the coming weeks.
The petitions for cancellation are here:
- 5978630 NGINX Unit
- 5973515 NGINX Controller
- 4837175 NGINX Plus
- 5973527 NGINX
- 4200791 NGINX (logo)
- 4196757NGINX
The oppositions are here:
