Key Takeaways
- The suits claim that by running Bitcoin software and mining operations, the miners are unlawfully using ECC-based methods patented by Certicom and now owned by Malikie.
- The lawsuits allege infringement through the use, testing, sale, and import of mining equipment and wallet software that comply with the Bitcoin protocol.
Two Bitcoin Mining Giants, Marathon Digital and Core Scientific, have now found themselves entangled in a lawsuit. Patent Hoarder, Malikie Innovations has sued the mining firm for using the Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) employed by the Bitcoin blockchain, which it claims to own.
The legal actions follow Malikie’s 2023 acquisition of 32,000 non-core patents from BlackBerry in a deal reportedly worth up to $900 million. Several of the patents, originally developed by researchers at Certicom, a BlackBerry subsidiary, cover cryptographic techniques now used in Bitcoin to generate key pairs and verify digital signatures.
Malikie, a subsidiary of Key Patent Innovations Limited, specializes in patent monetization and is seeking damages and royalties from the mining firms. The suits claim that by running Bitcoin software and mining operations, the companies are unlawfully using ECC-based methods patented by Certicom and now owned by Malikie.
“This case centers on ground-breaking innovations in elliptic curve cryptography that years later were recognized and selected by the designers of Bitcoin,” the filings state.
The lawsuits allege infringement through the use, testing, sale, and import of mining equipment and wallet software that comply with the Bitcoin protocol.
If Malikie prevails, it may recover up to six years of lost royalties. However, this is not the first time intellectual property claims have disrupted the Bitcoin space. In a separate incident, the Bitcoin white paper was briefly taken offline during a failed court challenge by Craig Wright, who attempted to assert authorship of the protocol.
