Meta (formerly Facebook) has joined the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA) as a member. The organisation promotes the idea of free and open access to technologies through a shared patent library.
Meta joins COPA’s board! This is the biggest commitment to patent non-aggression in crypto to date. More coming. https://t.co/RWAg2XRcJl
— COPA (@opencryptoorg) January 31, 2022
Meta has agreed not to assert its core cryptocurrency patents, except to defend against litigation.
Shane O’Reilly, head of Meta’s Licensing and Open Source division, will join COPA’s board.
The alliance was founded by Jack Dorsey’s Block (formerly Square). Among its members are MicroStrategy, Satoshi Labs, Coinbase, Kraken, OKCoin, Protocol Labs, BitPay, Stacks, ChainCode Labs, Uniswap and Blockstream.
Executive Director Max Skills told Blockworks in an interview that COPA expects to include other major technology and financial companies in its ranks.
In April 2021 COPA filed a lawsuit against the self-proclaimed creator of Bitcoin, Craig Wright, over his claims to authorship of the Bitcoin white paper and his demand to remove the document from open sources.
In December, the alliance won the first hearing in the case.
Earlier, Twitter co-founder and Block CEO Jack Dorsey announced the creation of a fund to defend Bitcoin developers in legal proceedings.
Subscribe to ForkLog news on Telegram: ForkLog Feed — the full news stream, ForkLog — the most important news, infographics and opinions