IP Law Daily, TRADEMARK NEWS: Supreme Court denies certiorari in dispute over WallStreetBets trademark ownership, (Dec 9, 2025)

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

Denial of certiorari leaves intact Ninth Circuit’s ruling that Reddit owns the WALLSTREETBETS trademark because it created and provided the services that enabled Reddit’s many users to contribute to the discussion on r/wallstreetbets.

In its order list released on December 8, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for writ of certiorari filed by Jamie Rogozinski to review the judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Rogozinski’s petition for certiorari had asked the Supreme Court to address the conflict between the Ninth Circuit and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (TTAB’s) decisions on the question of trademark ownership (Rogozinski v. Reddit, Inc., No. 25-568 (U.S. petition denied Dec. 8, 2025)).

Background. Reddit is a popular online community website, on which individuals can create and moderate communities known as “subreddits.” The subreddit at issue, WallStreetBets, was started 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 district court 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 state 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.

Petition for certiorari. On November 7, 2025, Rogozinski filed petition for writ of certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking review of the Ninth Circuit’s decision. The petition asserted that 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 also 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.

The petition also noted that 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.

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.

The question presented in the petition was: “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?”

The Case is Dkt. No. 25-568.

Attorneys: Matthew Topic (Loevy + Loevy) for Reddit, Inc.

Companies: Reddit, Inc.

News: TechnologyInternet Trademark GCNNews AlaskaNews ArizonaNews CaliforniaNews HawaiiNews IdahoNews MontanaNews NevadaNews OregonNews WashingtonNews