DeFi Advocacy Group Challenges Patent Held by Alleged Patent Troll
Summary:
A decentralized finance advocacy group has petitioned the US Patent and Trademark Office to review a patent owned by True Return Systems, whom they accuse of being a patent troll. The group aims to cancel the patent and defend open-source software development, helping to protect MakerDAO and Compound Finance from potential lawsuits. True Return Systems has three months to respond to the petition.
A decentralized finance (DeFi) advocacy group has officially requested the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to re-evaluate a patent owned by a company that they accuse of being a "patent troll". In a blog post on September 11, the DeFi Education Fund (DEF) announced that they had submitted a comprehensive petition, consisting of over 90 pages, to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Their objective is to invalidate a patent held by True Return Systems, which was granted in 2018. The patent claims to cover a process that connects off-chain data with a blockchain, according to DEF's legal chief, Amanda Tuminelli, who shared this information in a tweet on September 11.
Tuminelli also mentioned that True Return attempted to sell the patent as a nonfungible token (NFT) but was unsuccessful. Following this, in October 2022, True Return filed a lawsuit against DeFi protocols MakerDAO and Compound Finance, accusing them of patent infringement. Tuminelli believes that True Return's intention was to target defendants who would be unable to respond to the complaint, and subsequently obtain a default judgment. She also warned that True Return could potentially enforce the court's ruling against token holders and engage in similar tactics with other protocols that lack the means or ability to challenge them in court.
DEF argues that the technology described in True Return's patent was not novel when it was granted, citing the existence of prior art such as the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) and decentralized storage platforms like Sia, Storj, and Swarm. In their petition, DEF emphasizes the importance of protecting the ability to use and develop open-source software and aims to prevent True Return from suing other crypto projects. They also state that their objective is to support the legal defense of MakerDAO and Compound.
True Return Systems has acknowledged Cointelegraph's request for comment but has not yet provided a response. The USPTO allows True Return three months to optionally respond to DEF's petition. After six months, the patent office will make a decision regarding whether to proceed with a review of the patent, a process that could take up to 12 months.
Published At
9/12/2023 6:09:00 AM
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