2021-12-29 03:47:59
I was recently asked "Jared can you let us know if any of code used or methods of DGB infringes on Reggie Middletons patents?"... here is my answer:
DGB was created almost a year and a half before his patent was even filed. It holds zero weight over any decentralized blockchain. He can attempt to patent troll all he wants, but it will go down in history as one of the quickest and simplest patent invalidations ever completed. Especially if he decides to go after groups who literally have billions to spend on a team of lawyers to make quick work of it.
Nothing about his patent is unique or novel. There were numerous operational blockchains & blockchain platforms in existence talking about and doing what he supposedly patented before it was even filed. One of those was DGB. I know this because I was involved with blockchain tech everyday for almost 3 years before his patent was even filed. I have received numerous threatening letters from patent trolls in the past and they all ended up in the same place. My trash bin. Nothing ever came of them because they were all BS to begin with and had zero legal standing in an actual court of law in the US.
More importantly the very idea of patenting open source blockchain is against the entire ethos and moral high ground of open source blockchain tech. Which is why I have not attempted to patent any open source code I developed or worked on over the past 9 years. To do so would be not only unethical, but completely unenforceable. So I find anyone attempting to do so counter to everything the rest of us have been working on.
According to US Patent office a patent must have 6 things; Have Patent-Eligible Subject Matter, Be Disclosed, Not Be Already Patented, Be Novel, Serve Some Predetermined Purpose (Utility Patents Only), and Be Non-Obvious.
At the time his patent was filed there were many blockchains and second layer solutions working, in the wild and doing what his patent describes. So it is in no way Novel, and it is definitely not non-obvious. Numerous people were talking about decentralized finance, second layers and more in 2011/2012/2013/2014 well before he even filed it.
Finally the patent needs to "Have Patent-Eligible Subject Matter". Ie. "Certain subject matters are excluded from patentability by each patent jurisdiction in the world. For example, in the US, laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas may not be patented." Decentralized finance at this point with blockchain technology is very much an abstract idea as well as an extension of the laws of nature as decentralized computing begins approximating the data structures seen in nature through blockchain technology.
https://ghbintellect.com/five-ways-to-invalidate-a-patent/
871 viewsJared Tate, 00:47
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