ELON Musk’s Tesla is demanding millions from a British teenager who sold a handful of 3D-printed keyrings with the company’s brand.
The 14-year-old is one of several teens facing mass copyright action from the US giant.
Each faces having to pay $2million (£1.6million) in damages.
They are accused of “unfair competition” and have had online shop accounts frozen.
The demand for $2million came out of the blue
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The trademark counterfeiting lawsuit identifies hundreds of products which have been advertised on e-commerce sites such as eBay.
It states that Tesla “is suffering irreparable injury”.
Items listed in the evidence files include a T-shirt printed with a cartoon of Musk standing by a Tesla Cybertruck and sunglasses printed with the Tesla logo.
On January 12, 2021, Elon Musk wrote on X/Twitter: “You can steal our name/logo & we probably won’t sue you.”
One UK seller said: “I’d only ever sold one hoodie on Etsy with a Tesla logo on it and made £3 profit.
“I knew of the Tweet and listed it for sale after I tweeted back asking if it was OK to sell a hoodie.
"The demand for $2million came out of the blue.”
The seller added: “The poor 14-year-old is scared rigid.
"I wonder what billionaire Elon would think of it?”
JET TRACKING ROW
Musk has previously threatened legal action against a student for live tweeting every time the billionaire took off and landed in his private jet.
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Aviation fan Jack Sweeney used publicly available flight-tracking information for jets belonging to Musk and other celebrities like Taylor Swift.
Musk initially offered $5,000 to buy the account, which Sweeney rejected.
Despite claiming to keep Twitter / X a beacon for free speech since acquiring the firm in 2022, Musk banned the accounts.
To get around the issue, Sweeney resorted to running jet movement accounts with a 24 hour delay.