Craig Wright Will Be Able to Fight Copyright Claims Against Bitcoin in the UK After Winning the Appeal
A court filing states that Craig Wright, who has claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin, can now campaign for copyright protection in UK law for the Bitcoin file format. This comes after a panel of three UK judges upheld his appeal against an earlier refusal.
On February 8, 2023, a UK court rejected Wright’s claim that he should be able to block the operation of Bitcoin and its derivative system, Bitcoin Cash, because they infringe on his intellectual property rights. In 2023, the UK court rejected Wright’s claim that he was entitled to ban Bitcoin Cash and its Bitcoin Cash fork. This is because the systems violated his intellectual property rights. Wright filed his lawsuit against 26 defendants, including several Coinbase companies and developers. Wright claims that the Bitcoin Satoshi Vision blockchain, which he created by forking another bitcoin, is the original blockchain behind the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.
The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund (BLDF), a nonprofit founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, said this ruling only means the judges Dr. Wright agreed to argue that bitcoin file formats are sufficiently well defined for copyright protection in UK law. This case was one of 13 filed against developers. The decision is not about whether the bitcoin format is copyrighted. “You can also” “Is the copyright of Dr. Wright with him?” Wright.”
In January 2024, a trial will determine whether Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto. Several witnesses in a case heard in Oslo last year provided forensic evidence that there were inconsistencies in Wright’s documents claiming he was Satoshi Nakamoto. For example, no fonts were available at the time.
The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund said the copyright issues “will be resolved in a full trial, but only after Dr. Wright, in a trial dealing only with this matter, proves he is Satoshi in the year 2024.” The Defense Fund warned that “if the UK courts allow Wright’s arguments … set a dangerous precedent in which developers could be sued for allegedly infringing the format of open-source software that someone else allegedly created.”
Wright’s lawyers said he was pleased with the outcome and acknowledged the importance of the case.
This significant ruling will allow Dr. Wright’s claim to copyright for the Bitcoin File Format to go forward. It could affect all future uses and marketing of Bitcoin.
UPDATE (July 22, 11:39 UTC). Wright’s attorneys are quoted in the article
