ELON Musk’s Tesla is demanding millions from a British teenager who sold a handful of 3D-printed keyrings with the company’s brand.
The 14-year-old is one of several teens facing mass copyright action from the US giant.
Elon Musk’s Tesla is demanding millions from a British teenager who sold a handful of 3D-printed keyrings with the company’s brandCredit: Getty
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Tesla claims it ‘is suffering irreparable injury’Credit: Getty
Each faces having to pay $2million (£1.6million) in damages.
They are accused of “unfair competition” and have had online shop accounts frozen.
The demand for $2million came out of the blue
UK seller
The trademark counterfeiting lawsuit identifies hundreds of products which have been advertised on e-commerce sites such as eBay.
It states that Tesla “is suffering irreparable injury”.
Items listed in the evidence files include a T-shirt printed with a cartoon of Musk standing by a Tesla Cybertruck and sunglasses printed with the Tesla logo.
On January 12, 2021, Elon Musk wrote on X/Twitter: “You can steal our name/logo & we probably won’t sue you.”
One UK seller said: “I’d only ever sold one hoodie on Etsy with a Tesla logo on it and made £3 profit.
“I knew of the Tweet and listed it for sale after I tweeted back asking if it was OK to sell a hoodie.
“The demand for $2million came out of the blue.”
The seller added: “The poor 14-year-old is scared rigid.
“I wonder what billionaire Elon would think of it?”
Video of Elon Musk’s first human Neuralink brain chip patient playing chess ‘by thinking’ as ‘telepathy’ controls game
JET TRACKING ROW
Musk has previously threatened legal action against a student for live tweeting every time the billionaire took off and landed in his private jet.
Aviation fan Jack Sweeney used publicly available flight-tracking information for jets belonging to Musk and other celebrities like Taylor Swift.
Musk initially offered $5,000 to buy the account, which Sweeney rejected.
Despite claiming to keep Twitter / X a beacon for free speech since acquiring the firm in 2022, Musk banned the accounts.
To get around the issue, Sweeney resorted to running jet movement accounts with a 24 hour delay.
MUSK’S WEALTH AND BUSINESSES REVEALED
Elon Musk is the world’s second richest man with a net worth of $196.5billion.
The 52-year-old has co-founded six major companies, including X.com which eventually became PayPal.
Ebay bought PayPal for $1.5billion in October 2002.
He used $100million from the sale to launch SpaceX, one of the world’s leading spaceflight companies, with ambitions to eventually travel to Mars.
The company also provides Starlink internet services beamed from SpaceX’s satellites.
Musk was an early investor in Tesla too and is now the electric car giant’s largest shareholder.
One of his most notorious business ventures was the takeover of Twitter, costing $44billion – which was later rebranded to X in a nod to his early success.
But Musk’s most controversial project is Neuralink, a firm that’s creating tech implants for the brain to help people with neurological disorders.
The South African-born businessman was the world’s richest man for sometime but lost his crown in 2024.
He also broke the Guinness World Record for largest lose of personal fortune, estimated by Forbes to be around $165billion.