The Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA) and Unified Patents have joined forces to fight patent trolls in the blockchain industry. This partnership, which was announced on October 1, has led to the creation of the “Blockchain Zone,” an effort to fight patents owned by non-practicing organizations (NPEs), also known as patent trolls.
These “patent trolls” don’t make or sell anything; they only hold patents to make money from court battles or licensing fees. The information shows that these groups were behind 58% of all patent lawsuits in the US last year, mostly against tech companies. The goal of COPA’s effort is to protect blockchain developers and businesses from these baseless legal threats that usually lead to pricey court cases and settlements.
In his speech, Paul Grewal, head of Coinbase’s legal department, talked about how patent trolls hurt innovation and how their actions need to be limited to help the crypto community grow. Kevin Jakel, CEO of Unified Patents, agreed and said that the relationship would help the crypto business stay away from the false patent claims that have hurt other industries.
Patent trolls have already caused problems in the world of cryptocurrencies. The DeFi Education Fund recently bought a patent on how to connect off-chain data to a blockchain. This ended a legal disagreement with True Return Systems, which had sued crypto platforms MakerDAO (now Sky) and Compound Finance for infringement.
In a different case, the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is currently fighting a patent that was given to Unstoppable names. Unstoppable Domains says it created technology for blockchain-based names, but ENS says it was the real first to use this technology.
Through the Blockchain Zone project, COPA and Unified Patents want to set up a way to protect against the danger of NPEs. By questioning the validity of these patents, they hope to make the environment better for blockchain innovation. This way, developers can focus on making new solutions instead of fighting pointless cases.
The partnership’s goal is to give COPA members free legal defense against patent-related claims. This is a very useful service for smaller businesses that are having a hard time paying for lawsuits. In the blockchain world, this encourages originality and new ideas by lowering the fear of legal consequences.
To sum up, the Blockchain Zone’s start is an important step toward protecting the blockchain industry from patent scammers’ disruptive actions. By working together, COPA and unified patents want to make sure that new ideas in blockchain and bitcoin technologies can grow without being stifled by unfair patent lawsuits.
