The trial in London between the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) and Craig Wright, the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, entered the closing arguments phase on March 12. COPA, the claimant in the case, presented its argument first, seeking injunctive relief to prevent Wright from continuing to claim he is Nakamoto. The burden of proof lies with COPA, as they have to demonstrate that Wright is not Nakamoto, a claim he has made since 2016. The trial is expected to last three or four days.
COPA has accused Wright of forging documents to support his claim of being Nakamoto. In its closing submission, COPA stated its intention to refer the documents submitted by Wright in the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions for potential perjury charges.
The trial began on February 5, and on January 24, Wright offered to settle the case out of court, which COPA declined.
COPA, established in 2020, aims to promote the adoption and advancement of cryptocurrency technologies and eliminate patents as a barrier to growth and innovation. It has 33 members, including Coinbase, Block, Meta, MicroStrategy, Kraken, Paradigm, Uniswap, and Worldcoin. Wright holds numerous patents related to blockchain technology.
Intellectual property rights have cast a shadow over the trial. In 2023, Wright filed a lawsuit against 13 Bitcoin Core developers and several companies, including Blockstream, Coinbase, and Block, accusing them of copyright violations regarding the Bitcoin white paper, its file format, and database rights to the Bitcoin blockchain. The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund confirmed that Wright registered the copyright for the Bitcoin white paper and its code in the United States in 2019. He currently has an ongoing lawsuit in the United Kingdom concerning the rights to the white paper.
The Bitcoin white paper is now subject to an MIT open-source license, allowing anyone to reuse and modify the code for any purpose. A court injunction would prevent Wright from making further copyright claims on it.
The potential transformation of the courtroom through the use of AI and blockchain technology is an intriguing topic, as it could introduce a robot judge to the proceedings.