Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter and head of financial services company Square has created a platform to increase accessibility to blockchain tech. The platform is an initiative of Square. Dorsey took to Twitter to announce the creation of Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), which he described as a “shared patent library”.
Square is putting all of our crypto patents into a new non-profit org we’re calling the Crypto Open Patent Alliance, which will maintain a shared patent library to help the crypto community defend against patent aggressors and trolls. Join us! #bitcoinhttps://t.co/I9VopgtMz9
— jack (@jack) September 10, 2020
COPA stands to be a union of sorts for cryptocurrency-related patents. According to Dorsey, these patents need to be kept away from aggressors and trolls. COPA firmly believes that “open access to patents covering foundational cryptocurrency technologies is necessary for the community to grow, freely innovate, and build new and better products.”
Patent trolls and aggressors are constantly facing allegations of stifling competition and innovation in the market. Square attempts to solve this problem by building COPA. The company explained, “We believe that cryptocurrency’s success depends on the community coming together to build and develop upon existing technologies to innovate, which is not possible when parties tie up foundational technology in patents and litigation.”
What does COPA do?
COPA follows a dual approach to preventing the stifling of innovation. All members pledge to never use their crypto patents against anyone and make them freely available for all to use.
COPA also creates a shared patent library where members pool all of their crypto patents together to form a collective shield of patents, which would defend members against patent aggressors.
The Alliance refers to this process as “democratization” of the cryptocurrency and blockchain patent industry – small and big companies both would hold equal power. This ensures that precious and innovative technologies in the crypto sector and blockchain developments are never lost in heavy litigation.
