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Ur served: WeWork sues rival for copyright infringement — again
Co-working firms are fighting for market share in China
A month after suing Chinese rival UrWork for copyright infringement in London, coworking behemoth WeWork filed a similar lawsuit in New York.
WeWork alleges that the names are too similar and that customers could mistake one for the other. “WeWork has invested substantial time and money building a superior brand to ensure that our brand name is uniquely associated with WeWork and its offerings,” a company spokesperson told TechCrunch. “UrWork has no physical presence and no brand equity in the United States, so there is no reason for them to enter our home market with such a confusingly similar name.”
China-based UrWork is backed by $165 million in venture funding and claims to operate 99 coworking spaces in China and one in Singapore. It recently signed a deal with Serendipity Labs to open a joint office space at Fosun International’s 28 Liberty Street in Manhattan.
WeWork, meanwhile, has plans to expand in China with the help of a multibillion-dollar investment from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. WeWork is now valued at around $20 billion. [TechCrunch] — Konrad Putzier