Electric Coin Company (ECC) has donated the Zcash trademark to the Zcash Foundation. ECC created and launched the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC) in 2016, and will now own the trademark bilaterally with the corresponding foundation.

ECC and the Zcash Foundation have been in negotiations since August

Upon an agreement signed on Nov. 6, the Zcash Foundation will be financially responsible for costs associated with assigning and protecting the trademark.

Announcing the news, the Zcash Foundation mentioned the existing disagreement with ECC over the trademark’s future. The foundation noted that it returned to negotiations with ECC after failing to reach an agreement in late August 2019, during the Zcash Community Forum.

ECC logged over 500 hours and spent $250,000 on the trademark

ECC explained that the trademark agreement is important because it protects reputation and separates one product from another. The firm said Zcash’s trademark protects the community from scams and brings legal power to Zcash’s blockchain governance.

According to ECC, the donation lets them solve two basic problems — to honor and support the Zcash community’s feedback, and to further decentralize the organization. The Zcash Foundation noted that the agreement maintains interoperability with standard legal and business frameworks.

Cointelegraph reported in October on a potentially malicious counterfeit version of Zcash Foundation’s native ZecWallet. The agreement by ECC and the Zcash Foundation demonstrate their commitment to prevent such cases.