After a rough start to their working relationship, the Nala Cat brand and current team behind Solana meme coin Shark Cat (SC) have come to an agreement—giving Shark Cat an official license to the IP.
Following a contentious dispute that spilled out onto Twitter, the owner of famed social media feline Nala announced last week that she has reached a deal with the team behind Shark Cat—which originally used photos of the cat to promote its token.
The Shark Cat team confirmed that they made a deal with the Nala Cat brand, and acquired a license to use the IP for the meme coin. But after all of the bad blood between the two sides, as previously reported by Decrypt, how did they come to a solution?
When the debacle first began, Nala’s pseudonymous owner Pookie had attempted to negotiate a deal with a community-led Shark Cat team after she discovered they’d used Nala’s likeness for their meme coin.
Things quickly went south. The Nala Cat team didn’t feel like they were presented fair offers, given that their IP—which is used for a line of cat food, plus other products—was repeatedly used to promote a coin valued at a peak market cap of $390 million in late March. The Shark Cat team, meanwhile, felt like Pookie's request for a sizable chunk of the token supply was not feasible. It didn’t appear that either side was willing to budge on their positions.
After Decrypt’s report on the meme coin conflict came out, Pookie said that she started getting emails from several members of the Shark Cat community. She found that a lot of the people reaching out seemed like real, genuine human beings that just wanted to come to a solution.
There’s been some bad back and forth these last few weeks, and we’d like to apologize on behalf of the community for any foul behavior.
This deal is a major milestone on the swim to $1B+, can’t express how big this is.
Fins up 🥂 Shark is a Mf Cat 🦈🐱 https://t.co/E39vzvEy3B
— Shark Cat 🦈🐱 (@SharkCatSolana) May 2, 2024
Pookie told Decrypt that seeing how many real people from all over the world were affected by the situation opened her up to coming to an agreement with the Shark Cat team.
She was approached by Brandon Sample, a crypto-focused lawyer who read about what was going on and offered to take on her case pro bono. Sample told Decrypt that the conflict was ultimately a learning experience for both sides, and that both Pookie and the Shark Cat team are satisfied with the outcome.
“While ‘Code is law’ is a popular mantra in the industry, there are actual laws and frameworks on how to operate when it comes to things like intellectual property,” said Sample.
The exact details of the agreement between the two parties are being kept private. The only information Nala’s legal team shared with Decrypt is that it is a licensing deal, and that Shark Cat has the rights to use the Nala Cat brand.
Pookie and Sample both stressed that there was no bad blood between the two teams, that they wish the Shark Cat community the best of luck, and that they hope they find success in their endeavors.
When reached for comment, a liaison from the Shark Cat community responded, “We swim together now. Shark is a mf cat 🦈🐱.”
Shark Cat’s price has rebounded substantially amid the alliance, with the price rising 208% over the past week to a current price around $0.15 per token, according to CoinGecko. It’s still down by 55% from the March 31 peak.
Edited by Andrew Hayward