COPA and Unified Patents launch ‘Blockchain Zone’ to combat patent trolls

Crypto advocacy group COPA has partnered with Unified Patents to launch a campaign targeting “patent trolls.”

According to an Oct. 1 announcement, the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance teamed up with Unified Patents, a member-based organization specializing in patent advisory services, to create the “Blockchain Zone.”

The initiative seeks to protect blockchain developers and companies from legal challenges brought by non-practicing entities and patent trolls that want to profit from these litigations.

For those unaware, Patent trolls are individuals or organizations that hold patents for the sole purpose of profiting from them through licensing or litigation, in most cases without any intention to develop or use the technology themselves.

Founded in 2020 by Jack Dorsey, founded fintech firm Block, formerly Square, COPA focuses on ensuring that key crypto technologies remain free for all to use. Prominent COPA members include MicroStrategy, Worldcoin, Kraken, and Blockstream, among others.

COPA founding member Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, emphasized the need to stop such entities, calling patent trolls “barriers in the path of innovation” and adding that they hinder progress and stifle creativity.

Reportedly, NPEs were responsible for 58% of all patent litigations last year, and the majority of the cases were directed toward tech companies like Samsung, Google, and Apple.

History of patent trolls in the crypto space

In the crypto space, there have already been cases of alleged patent trolling. Recall that the DeFi Education Fund (DEF), a Washington D.C.-based policy research group, moved to cancel a patent owned by True Return Systems (TRS) last year.

TRS had sued MakerDAO and Compound Finance for allegedly infringing on its patent, which links off-chain data to a blockchain. DEF called TRS a “patent troll” and argued that the patent should never have been issued.

The launch of the Blockchain Zone aims to prevent such legal challenges from slowing down development and ensure that the blockchain sector remains free from “baseless patent assertions,” said Kevin Jakel, CEO of Unified Patents.

As a part of the collaboration, COPA members will receive pass-through protection at no cost, meaning they will not have to face legal threats from NPEs unaided.

The new initiative continues the work COPA has been doing, which includes past efforts to debunk false intellectual property claims within the community.

Specifically, COPA brought a case against Dr. Craig Wright, who claimed to be Bitcoin’s anonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. In March 2024, following a lengthy legal battle, UK High Court Judge James Mellor concluded that Wright was not involved in the development of Bitcoin and was not Satoshi.