IP Law Daily, TRADEMARK NEWS: Supreme Court asked to clarify who owns the trademark for a user-created online community on a social media platform, (Nov 13, 2025)

By Carolin Dennis, B.Sc., LL.B., LL.M.

The petition alleges that the Ninth Circuit’s decision that a technology platform owns the trademarks to all community discussion groups created on that platform is inconsistent with bedrock trademark principles as applied to the age of social media.

In a new petition for certiorari, “r/WallStreetBets” subreddit founder Jaimie Rogozinski has asked the Supreme Court to provide guidance to protect against tech company overreach and to address the conflict between the Ninth Circuit’s and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s decisions on the question of trademark ownership. The question presented by Rogozinski’s petition is, “who owns the trademark for a user-created online community on a social media platform: the social media platform that provides the technical infrastructure or the creator of the online community who creates the look, feel, and personality of the community, moderates the community’s content, cultivates the brand’s goodwill, and is recognized by the public as the source of the brand?” (Rogozinski v. Reddit, Inc., No. 25-568 (U.S. filed on Nov. 7, 2025)).

Reddit is a popular online community website, on which individuals can create and moderate communities known as “subreddits.” The subreddit at issue, WallStreetBets, was created by Jamie Rogozinski in 2012 for users to share stock market advice. In early 2020, Rogozinski published a book, WallStreetBets: How Boomers Made the World’s Biggest Casino for Millennials, which he advertised on the subreddit, and also announced a WallStreetBets-branded esports competition. After moderating r/wallstreetbets and cultivating goodwill in the WALLSTREETBETS brand for more than eight years, Rogozinski filed an application on March 24, 2020, with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to register the trademark WALLSTREETBETS. In April 2020, Reddit notified Rogozinski that he would be suspended for a seven-day period for “attempting to monetize a community” and would no longer be allowed to moderate communities. In May, Reddit applied to register the mark WALLSTREETBETS and sought to block Rogozinski’s registration.

Rogozinski filed a suit in the federal district court in San Franciso seeking a declaratory judgment that he, not Reddit, is the owner of the WALLSTREETBETS trademark. The district court ruled that Rogozinski had failed to state a claim because he failed to allege he was the first to use WALLSTREETBETS in commerce through the “launch and operation of” the subreddit.

The Ninth Circuit affirmed, holding that “Rogozinski failed to state a trademark claim because he failed to adequately plead ownership over the WALLSTREETBETS mark.” It found that the core of the services at issue are the provision and hosting of r/WallStreetBets—an online forum-based community in which Reddit users exchange financial information. The Ninth Circuit ruled that Rogozinski did not claim “a valid ownership claim over the WALLSTREETBETS mark” because Reddit created and provided the services that enabled Reddit’s many users to contribute to the discussion on r/WallStreetBets.

In his petition, Rogozinski argued that the Ninth Circuit erred by denying it the ownership of the WALLSTREETBETS mark because he first used WALLSTREETBETS when he created the subreddit and Reddit only provided the platform and technical infrastructure for his subreddit community. Further, the relevant “service” for the purpose of trademark ownership in this case is not who provided the technical infrastructure powering the subreddit, but who first created and cultivated the specific online community associated with the WALLSTREETBETS brand. In creating and cultivating the online community r/wallstreetbets, Rogozinski provided the relevant service, and he is the “source” of WALLSTREETBETS. Despite this, the Ninth Circuit denied Rogozinski ownership of the WALLSTREETBETS mark because it did not consider it plausible, for the purposes of a motion to dismiss, for Rogozinski to be the source of the brand. Instead, the Ninth Circuit considered the source of WALLSTREETBETS to be Reddit because, in its view, Reddit provided the technical infrastructure Rogozinski used to create the subreddit community.

According to the petition, the Ninth Circuit’s decision conflicts with three well-established trademarks principles and decisions of the Supreme Court. First, the Ninth Circuit’s ruling conflicts with the presumption that the manufacturer of a product owns the trademark over its distributor absent some agreement otherwise. Second, the Ninth Circuit’s ruling conflicts with the principle that brands that exist online can own the trademark in their web address names. Third, the ruling conflicts with the black letter principle that trademarks must be assessed “from the perspective of the ordinary purchaser.”

Rogozinski contended that apart from these trademark principles, the Ninth Circuit’s ruling also conflicts with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which absolves technology platforms, or “interactive computer services,” of liability because they are not “the publisher or speaker of any information provided by” their users. In other words, Section 230 says, for the purpose of civil liability, Reddit is not the creator of its users’ content.

Rogozinski asserted that Reddit cannot argue it is the creator of the WALLSTREETBETS brand while simultaneously arguing it bears no responsibility for the WALLSTREETBETS content that makes up the brand, yet the Ninth Circuit’s ruling permits it to do so. Rogozinski also contended that the Ninth Circuit’s ruling not only ignores bedrock trademark principles, but it also fails to consider how these principles should apply in the digital age, where platforms hold themselves out as distributors of user generated content and brands, but are not legally responsible for creating content and brands themselves.

According to the petition, in holding that Reddit, not Rogozinski, owns the trademark in WALLSTREETBETS, the Ninth Circuit has shattered competition in the online creator economy and greenlit tech companies to usurp the ownership rights of creators. Further, the Ninth Circuit’s decision will also lead to consumer confusion because it tells consumers that Reddit or another similar technology platform is the source of the online community’s content, style, and culture, not the brand creator.

Lastly, Rogozinski claimed that the Ninth Circuit’s decision holds that technology platforms own the trademarks of brands that emerge in commerce on their platforms, even though Congress did not intend platforms to be publishers or speakers of third-party content. Rogozinski specifically, citied a case, In re Florists’ Transworld Delivery Inc., 2016 WL 3998062 (T.T.A.B. May 11, 2016) where the TTAB found that where a platform user cultivates a unique online community, that person should be considered the source of the service and the owner of the corresponding trademark. Rogozinski argued that the Ninth Circuit disregarded the TTAB’s analysis and held that without development of the factual record and without appreciation of the unique interaction between creators and the technology platforms they rely on, that a tech company can claim ownership of any brand that emerges on its platform when it had no role in developing that brand apart from providing a digital address. Rogozinski has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and to resolve this conflict between the Ninth Circuit and the TTAB and ensure consistent and correct application of trademark law in this area nationwide.

The Case is Dkt. No. 25-568.

Attorneys: Matthew V. Topic (Loevy + Loevy) for Jaime Rogozinski.

Companies: Reddit, Inc.

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