Crypto advocacy group the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA) and the patent-focused organization Unified Patents have launched a campaign against āpatent trollsā targeting blockchain and crypto tech.
COPA said in an Oct. 1 blogĀ postĀ that the pair launched the āBlockchain Zone,ā a campaign to target patents under the control of non-practicing entities (NPEs), whichĀ coversĀ a slew of technology from non-fungible tokens (NFT), wallets andĀ smart contracts.
COPA said the partnership will aim to protect blockchain firms and developers from āunwarranted and costlyāĀ legal claimsĀ by patent trolls, or NPEs, who use the high costs of a court battle to negotiate a settlement.
Patent trolls, or hoarders, are entities that hold patents with the aim of profiting from them by licensing them or suing those who use them without permission. They typically donāt use the patent themselves.
According to Unified Patents, these entitiesĀ accountedĀ for 58% of all patent litigation in the United States last year and targeted tech companies 95% of the time.
āPatent trolls are barriers in the path of innovation,ā said Coinbaseās legal chief, Paul Grewal. āThey must be stopped so that the community can continue to do the important business of building the crypto-economy.ā
Unified Patents CEO Kevin Jakel said the partnership ensures the crypto sector āwonāt be hindered by the all-too-common baseless patent assertions affecting other sectors of the economy.ā
The crypto space has had its share of alleged patent trolls. In September, advocacy body the DeFi Education Fund (DEF)Ā moved to cancelĀ a patent ālinking offchain data to a blockchainā owned by True Return Systems, who had filed actions against crypto protocols MakerDAO (now Sky) and Compound Finance for infringement.
DEFĀ bought the patentĀ from True Return in August as part of a settlement agreement, which ended its claims against Sky and Compound.
Meanwhile, the crypto domain name service Ethereum Name Service (ENS)Ā is challenging a patentĀ granted to its rival Unstoppable Domains ā which says it made tech that uses blockchain to determine domains ā claiming it pioneered the tech.