Bitcoin miners sued over cryptography patents in US court case

After buying 32,000 BlackBerry patents, Malikie Innovations sued Bitcoin miners Marathon Digital and Core Scientific over alleged use of its intellectual property.

Malikie Innovations, a firm that acquired tens of thousands of patents from BlackBerry in 2023, has sued major Bitcoin mining firms Marathon Digital and Core Scientific for using the Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) employed by the Bitcoin blockchain, which it claims to own.

The cases against Marathon Digital Holdings and Core Scientific follow Malikie Innovations’ acquisition of 32,000 “non-core” patents from the communications company and former phone maker, BlackBerry, in 2023.

“This case centers on ground-breaking innovations in elliptic curve cryptography […] that years later were recognized and selected by the designers of Bitcoin,” the filings state.

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