When Jaime Rogozinski created r/WallStreetBets in 2012, he coined the name and built a community that would eventually drive the 2021 GameStop short squeeze heard around the world. By the time Reddit banned him from the platform in April 2020 for violating self-promotion policies, the subreddit had reached 1 million subscribers. Rogozinski filed a federal trademark application for “WallStreetBets” one month before his ban. Reddit claimed they owned the mark, not him. On June 11, 2025, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit settled the dispute: Reddit owns the WALLSTREETBETS trademark because they provided the commercial platform services that allowed the community to exist.
First to Provide Services, First to Own the Mark
Trademark ownership in the United States hinges on who first uses a mark “in commerce” while providing goods or services. Creating a clever name doesn’t establish ownership. Making that name famous doesn’t establish ownership. Filing a trademark application doesn’t establish ownership without underlying commercial use. What establishes ownership is providing commercial services to customers under that mark.
Rogozinski argued he created the WallStreetBets name, founded the community, and built its membership from zero to millions over eight years. He claimed the market associated WallStreetBets with him personally, and his March 2020 trademark application protected his rights.
Reddit argued they’d been providing commercial services under the WallStreetBets name since 2012. Those services included hosting infrastructure, server space, content delivery networks, user authentication, moderation tools, and platform access. From the moment Rogozinski created the subreddit, Reddit was operating commercial platform services in connection with that name.
The Ninth Circuit sided with Reddit. “The party claiming ownership must have been the first to actually use the mark in the sale of goods or services,” the court held. Reddit satisfied that test through platform infrastructure services beginning in 2012. Rogozinski did not, because creating and moderating a community without independently providing commercial services doesn’t constitute use in commerce.
Rogozinski created the term and built the community’s culture. Under trademark law, that creative contribution doesn’t establish ownership. Providing commercial services while using the mark establishes ownership. Reddit was doing that from day one. Rogozinski was not.
Platform Rights Trump Creator Contributions
The precedent extends across the creator economy. Discord server creators don’t own their server names. Discord does. Facebook group administrators don’t own group names. Meta does. Twitch streamers don’t own channel names against the platform. Twitch does. YouTube creators don’t own channel names that could prevent Google’s use. Google does. Platform infrastructure services establish priority rights regardless of who created the community or made it valuable.
When a creator builds entirely on a third-party platform, the platform owns the trademark rights even if the creator made the brand valuable. Reddit banned Rogozinski in April 2020 for posting links to his book and to a trading competition run by his company. He lost access to the community and discovered he had no trademark claim to the name he’d created. The cost to trademark a name and establish independent protection becomes trivial compared to losing a brand you spent years building.
The decision validates platform terms of service claiming ownership of user-generated brand elements. Before this case, legal ambiguity existed about whether platforms could enforce those provisions against creators who built genuinely valuable communities. The Ninth Circuit eliminated that ambiguity within its jurisdiction covering California and the technology industry’s base.
For businesses and creators, building a brand entirely on a platform you don’t control creates unavoidable trademark vulnerability. The platform owns the mark. When your relationship with that platform deteriorates, you have no legal claim to the community name you created.
Three Structural Decisions That Determine Ownership
If you’re developing a brand on a platform you don’t control, trademark strategy becomes critical the moment that brand develops independent value. Waiting until your community succeeds means fighting a battle the platform already won.
When I work with businesses building digital communities, three structural decisions determine trademark ownership. First, are you providing independent commercial services under the brand name, separate from platform infrastructure? Selling merchandise, offering courses, running events, or providing any other commercial service directly to customers establishes your own use in commerce. That creates potential trademark rights independent of the platform. Rogozinski didn’t do this. His WallStreetBets use was limited to managing the Reddit community, which meant all commercial service provision was Reddit’s.
Second, can you establish priority by registering the trademark before creating the platform-based community? The WallStreetBets case doesn’t directly address this scenario, but the logic suggests prior independent use in commerce could establish rights predating platform involvement. If you’re already selling products or services under a trademark and then create a Reddit community or Discord server using that name, your prior use might give you priority rights. This requires planning: establish commercial use outside the platform before building the platform community.
Third, is your community architecture designed for portability? Building your entire brand around platform-specific features (Reddit culture, Discord integrations, platform-native monetization) makes moving to independent infrastructure practically impossible. But building email lists, operating your own website, running your own commerce systems, and using the platform as one channel among many creates the foundation for independent commercial use.
Rogozinski built entirely on Reddit’s infrastructure, provided no independent commercial services, filed his trademark application eight years after creating the community, and had no architecture for independent operation. By the time he tried to establish trademark rights, Reddit had eight years of commercial service provision establishing priority. A thorough trademark search and early strategic planning could have identified these vulnerabilities before WallStreetBets became valuable enough to fight over.
Protect Brand Rights Before Platform Conflicts Arise
If you’re building a community, launching a product, or developing a brand that currently lives on someone else’s platform, the trademark protection question isn’t something you can address later. The Ninth Circuit made clear that platforms own trademark rights to communities built on their infrastructure, regardless of who created the community or made it valuable. Waiting until your brand succeeds means discovering you don’t own the trademark to the name you’ve been building.
My practice focuses on helping businesses establish trademark protection at the right point in their development, before conflicts arise and before you’ve invested heavily in a brand you might not legally control. I conduct trademark searches to identify potential conflicts, prepare applications documenting your use in commerce, and help structure business operations to support independent trademark rights. Whether you’re planning a new community, evaluating existing platform relationships, or need to understand what trademark rights you actually have, I can provide clarity about your legal position and options.
If you’re ready to discuss trademark protection for a brand you’re building, contact me today for a consultation. The architecture you build now determines what rights you’ll have later.
