Popular live streaming platform Periscope lost a lawsuit by a Turkish company claiming that a U.S.-based company violated the copyright of the name they originally registered for their brand. A court in Istanbul ruled the rights of Periskop Communications and Productions was violated by Periscope and ordered access to the platform to be banned. A ban was already in place for access due to an earlier temporary ruling but Periscope dodged it by changing its name to Scope in Turkey.
The Turkish company's lawyers told the court that Periscope openly violated the copyright of the brand as they did not have a name registered in Turkey as required under Turkish law. A lawyer for social media giant Twitter which developed Periscope denied the allegations and said that the company had no responsibility to be aware of the existence of a Turkish company with that name. "Besides, the field of work both companies are active in is entirely different. Periscope is a live streaming application while [Periskop] works in another field," the lawyers said in their appeal to the court and urged judges to drop the charges as it was technically impossible to remove the Periscope name from search engines as the plaintiff asked.
The court ordered both the removal of the Periscope name from the live streaming app's website, address and the suspension of Periscope's Twitter account and www.periscope.tv website.