The final arguments commenced in London on March 12 in the lawsuit filed by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) against Craig Wright, the Australian computer scientist who asserts himself as the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. COPA presented its case first, and the arguments are expected to continue for three to four days.
COPA is seeking injunctive relief to prohibit Wright from making any further claims of being Nakamoto. As the claimant, COPA bears the responsibility of proving that Wright is not Nakamoto. Wright has been asserting his identity as Satoshi Nakamoto since 2016.
Wright has been accused of extensive forgery of the documents he used to support his claim of being Nakamoto. COPA stated in its final submission that it intends to have the documents provided by Wright in the case referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions for potential perjury charges.
The trial began on February 5. Wright had proposed a settlement out of court on January 24, but COPA declined the offer.
COPA, established in 2020, aims to promote the adoption and advancement of cryptocurrency technologies and eliminate patents as a hindrance to growth and innovation. Its 33 members include prominent entities such as Coinbase, Block, Meta, MicroStrategy, Kraken, Paradigm, Uniswap, and Worldcoin. Wright holds numerous patents related to blockchain technology.
Intellectual property rights have cast a shadow over the trial. In 2023, Wright filed lawsuits against 13 Bitcoin Core developers and a group of companies, including Blockstream, Coinbase, and Block, for copyright infringements concerning the Bitcoin white paper, its file format, and database rights to the Bitcoin blockchain. The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund has stated that Wright registered the copyright for the Bitcoin white paper and its code in the United States in 2019. He currently has an ongoing lawsuit in the United Kingdom regarding the rights to the white paper.
The Bitcoin white paper is now subject to an MIT open-source license, enabling anyone to reuse and modify the code for any purpose. A court injunction would prevent Wright from making any further copyright claims on it.
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