Patent hoarder sues BTC miners over Bitcoin using its IP
Malikie Innovations, a company that acquired tens of thousands of Blackberry patents in 2023, continued the major Bitcoin Marathon and Core Scientific Marathon extraction companies to use the Elliptical Courbe Crypt (ECC) used by Blockchain Bitcoin, which he claims to have.
The cases against marathon Digital Holdings and Core Scientific follow the acquisition by Malikie Innovations of 32,000 “non-found” patents of the communications company and former phone designer, Blackberry, in 2023.
“This case focuses on revolutionary innovations in the cryptography of the elliptical curve […] These years later were recognized and selected by Bitcoin designers, ”said the documents.
The trial claims that defendants use cryptographic methods based on ECC covered by patents held by Malikie to support their Bitcoin mining operations (BTC).
In relation: Tangem Wallet guarantees a private key patent for private key transfer technology
Are Bitcoin users in danger?
Aaron Brogan, founder and director director at Brogan Law, told Cintelelegraph that it is unlikely that such prosecution strikes most of the individual Bitcoin users, even if the patents are valid:
“The pursuit of individuals is more delicate because they are often” in the test of judgment “, which is a lawyer for a lawyer for Broke.”
Minors, on the other hand, are rich targets that deserve legal action. Brogan said that “these entities will always tend to attract prosecution because they have money, and the patent mark can try to take them.”
If the complainants prevail, they will be able to recover up to six years of lost royalties. The sum to which this translates is not easy to calculate. Such cases often lead to a secondary trial, “but you can reasonably assume that this would be a significant sum, and this could make these defendants go bankrupt,” added Brogan.
In relation: Split community we are petitioning against unstoppable patents
Large -scale consequences
Brogan also noted that the victory of the case would establish a favorable precedent in Malikie to use in the pursuit of cases against other minors in the United States. This, in turn, could have disastrous consequences for Bitcoin.
“If they chose to continue this strategy, it could undermine the security of the Bitcoin network,” he said.
However, Brogan argued that Malikies is more likely to try to extract fees until the expiration of patents, rather than landing the whole industry. Niko Demchuk, head of the law of compliance with cryptocurrencies and amlbot criminalic, told Cointelegraph that it was unlikely:
“Malikie’s complaint does not seem so strong if the stated patents are expired or coverage techniques prior to the implementation of the Bitcoin ECC. Even if certain patents remain active, their scope is probably limited to specific implementation details, not to the main ECC algorithms used in Bitcoin,” said Demchuk. However, nothing is certain, he added:
“However, the result depends on the details of the specific patents asserted and the interpretation by the court of their reach.”
This is not the first time that intellectual property proceedings targeted Bitcoin. The Bitcoin.org site was able to retreat a copy of the white Bitcoin paper a little more than a year ago after being withdrawn during the attempted assault by Craig Wright to prove that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym creator of the protocol.
Wright worked hard to claim the property of key parts of technology behind Bitcoin. During the two years preceding 2019, he had filed 114 patents linked to the blockchain.
Review: Coinbase Hack shows that the law will probably not protect you: here is why