It seems that Kanye West may not have that much of a sense of humor, and apparently he was not amused when he learned about the new cryptocurrency, Coinye,which features Kanye’s likeness and is play on his name. He has had lawyers who work for him serve the coders behind Coinye with a cease and desist letter.

The letter claims that the use of West’s likeness is cause for infringement. “Given Mr. West’s wide-ranging entrepreneurial accomplishments, consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Mr. West is the source of your services,”  Brad Rose, who is a partner working at Pryor Cashman, wrote in the letter.

Coinye started out as a joke between the coders responsible who were making fun of the fact that virtual currencies — like Bitcoin — were becoming more and more popular. They also mused what else could be made into one and according to one of the coders “we said Coinye West and we were like, ‘Holy… we gotta make that.’”

The virtual coin is supposed to go out on the 11th, at which point West would have to go after every one who used the coin and do so individually.”We want to release this to the public before the man can try to crush it,” said another one of the coders to the Journal. “They’ll still come after us, but that’s okay.”

[via The Verge (1), (2), WSJ, image via Jason Persse’s flickr]