2 years ago
The institution formerly known arsenic Facebook is joining the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a consortium of tech and crypto companies led by Jack Dorsey’s payments company, Block (the institution formerly known arsenic Square).
Meta volition articulation implicit 2 twelve different companies who, by joining COPA, person pledged not to enforce their “core cryptocurrency patents” – broadly defined by Max Sills, the wide manager of COPA arsenic immoderate “technology that enables the creation, mining, storage, transmission, settlement, integrity, oregon information of cryptocurrencies.”
By creating an confederation and requiring subordinate companies to stock their patents with COPA’s corporate patent library, COPA’s extremity is to promote blockchain-related innovation by reducing the likelihood of patent litigation and, according to Dorsey, “help the crypto assemblage support against patent aggressors and trolls.”
In 2021, COPA filed a lawsuit against Craig Wright, the Australian machine idiosyncratic champion known for his widely-debated claim to beryllium the inventor of Bitcoin, implicit his attempts to copyright the bitcoin achromatic paper – an contented that has bedeviled the crypto assemblage for years.
According to Sills, Meta is the largest patent holder that has joined COPA to date.
“It signifies that crypto is becoming a halfway exertion to businesses crossed industries,” Sills wrote via email to CoinDesk.
When asked whether Diem’s patents would beryllium included erstwhile Meta joined COPA, Sills said, “It includes each Meta’s halfway crypto exertion patents successful its portfolio.”
It is unclear if the statement volition besides widen to the Diem Association.
While Diem (then Libra) was spun up with a radical of firm backers, Meta besides owns Novi, a integer wallet subsidiary launched arsenic Calibra. Novi caput David Marcus near the institution earlier this period though the wallet steadfast did motorboat a proceedings work with Paxos’ USDP stablecoin precocious past year.
Sills told CoinDesk that Meta committed to joining COPA successful November 2021.
Shayne O’Reilly, who heads Meta’s licensing and transactions group, volition correspond Meta connected COPA’s committee of directors, making Meta the sixth voting subordinate of COPA’s board.
O’Reilly volition articulation Coinbase’s Brittany Cuthbert, Square’s Steve Lee, Dan Robinson of task steadfast Paradigm, Jerry Brito of advocacy radical Coin Center, and Kirupa Pushparaj, lawman wide counsel astatine Square and COPA’s committee chair.
DISCLOSURE
The person successful quality and accusation connected cryptocurrency, integer assets and the aboriginal of money, CoinDesk is simply a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict acceptable of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an autarkic operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests successful cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As portion of their compensation, definite CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, whitethorn person vulnerability to DCG equity successful the signifier of stock appreciation rights, which vest implicit a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to acquisition banal outright successful DCG.
Cheyenne Ligon is simply a CoinDesk quality newsman with a absorption connected crypto regularisation and policy. She has nary important crypto holdings.
Subscribe to The Node, our regular study connected apical quality and ideas successful crypto.
By signing up, you volition person emails astir CoinDesk merchandise updates, events and selling and you hold to our terms of services and privacy policy.
English (US) 