DeFi group petitions to cease ‘patent troll’ focusing on DeFi protocols

by Jeremy

A decentralized finance (DeFi) advocacy physique has petitioned america Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) to overview a patent owned by an organization it has accused of being a a “patent troll” — a agency that goals to revenue from patent lawsuits.

In a Sept. 11 weblog submit, the DeFi Schooling Fund (DEF) stated on Sept. 7 that it filed an over 90-page petition to the Patent Trial and Attraction Board in a bid to cancel a patent owned by True Return Techniques.

Granted in 2018, the patent lays declare to a course of for “linking off-chain information to a blockchain,” DEF authorized chief Amanda Tuminelli stated in a Sept. 11 X (Twitter) submit.

Tuminelli claimed True Return tried to promote its patent as a nonfungible token (NFT). After no purchaser, it filed swimsuit in opposition to the DeFi protocols MakerDAO and Compound Finance in October.

“Clearly [True Return’s] aim was to call defendants who couldn’t reply the grievance so [it] might get a default judgement,” Tuminelli stated.

She claimed True Return would attempt to implement the courtroom’s ruling in opposition to token holders and repeat the method with different protocols “that both can’t problem them in courtroom or don’t have the assets to take action.”

DEF claimed True Return’s tech within the patent isn’t new on the time it was granted and claims to spotlight comparable current tech such because the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) together with the decentralized storage platforms Sia, Storj and Swarm.

True Return Techniques acknowledged Cointelegraph’s request for remark however didn’t instantly present a remark.

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DEF stated it launched the petition with USPTO to defend the flexibility to make use of and develop open supply software program, to cease any potential plans by True Return to sue crypto initiatives and assist MakerDAO and Compound’s authorized defence.

True Return has three months to optionally reply to the petition, after six months the USPTO should decide if it should transfer ahead with reviewing the patent the place it has 12 months to determine if the patent needs to be cancelled.

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