Elon Musk’s SpaceX has filed a lawsuit against a Ukrainian technology company

Elon Musk’s American company SpaceX is suing the Ukrainian company Starlink LLC and Ukrpatent. The tech giant is demanding that the trademark registration of a Ukrainian company whose name coincides with the name of a SpaceX subsidiary be terminated, dev.ua reports, citing a court decision.

The Ukrainian Starlink brand of the same name has been around for a long time. The founder of the company is Sergey Dulitsky. According to him, Musk’s lawyers demanded that the Ukrainian trademark be given in favor of the American Starlink.

«The reason: Starlink is a world-famous brand. So give it back,» Dulitsky was outraged.

He explained that his company has been providing IT services under the StarLink brand for a very long time — more than 14 years. The company itself, Starlink LLC, was registered, according to the YouControl register, back in 2009.

Dulitsky noted that he did not want to give his name to an American company for nothing. «It's not our fault that we chose this name long before Starlink itself appeared,» he says.

At the same time, the founder of the Ukrainian company admits the possibility of negotiations with SpaceX, but on the condition that Musk’s company compensates his company for the losses associated with the abandonment of the brand. Dulitsky emphasizes that his clients know his business by this name, and the post office has been operating on this domain for many years, so he will insist on compensation. The first hearing in the case is tentatively scheduled for December 8.

In October, Musk said that SpaceX spends up to $ 20 million a month to maintain Starlink Internet terminals in Ukraine, but will not refuse to provide services in the future. However, in less than a month, 1,300 Starlink terminals were shut down in the war zone in Ukraine, citing funding problems as the reason. Starlink satellite stations remain virtually the only means of communication for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in many «hot» zones after cell towers and Internet connections were destroyed during the full-scale war with Russia.