Block-chain-based software Veritaseum has filed a lawsuit in a U.S district court in Delaware, against crypto exchange platform Coinbase alleging that the latter infringed on one of its patents.
Veritasium alleged that Coinbase had used its patent developed for secure digital transactions, in its Pay, Cloud service, wallet, website, and App known as the “566 Patent”, and is seeking $350 million in damages.
According to the court document, Patent 566 was awarded to Vertiaseum founder Reginald ‘Reggie’ Middleton and co-inventor Mathew Bogosian by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Dec. 7, 2021. However, Vertiaseum did not mention how long Coinbase had been allegedly using Patent 566.
Veritaseum disclosed that the patent revolves around novel devices, systems, and methods, which enable parties to enforce value transfer agreements with little or no trust in each other, alleging that Coinbase used this for many of its blockchain infrastructure services.
Attorneys presiding over the case noted that Veritaseum had previously sent a letter to Coinbase in July warning it of its alleged infringement, however, the crypto exchange platform was uncooperative which forced Veritaseum to file a lawsuit.
Veritaseum further disclosed that Coinbase had prior knowledge and should have known or at least been willfully blind to the ‘566 Patent.
The Lawsuit reads, “Defendant makes, uses, sells, and/or supports infringing products and services on the Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Solana platforms as well as NFTs for its products and offerings that run on top of and facilitate said platforms.
“Defendant’s infringing activities include Coinbase Android mobile wallet, iOS mobile wallet, its Coinbase Cloud, Coinbase Commerce APIs, Query and Transact, Participate, Delegate and Validator software, Coinbase Pay, Coinbase Wallet, and Coinbase Operated Public Validators.”
Veritaseum justified the $350 million charges it is demanding, arguing that Coinbase had gained substantial profits by virtue of its infringement and that Veritaseum sustained damages as a direct and proximate result.
