Meta joins COPA, cements commitment towards crypto
Meta has joined Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) as a member which talks further about its seriousness about crypto.
Stating the membership, COPA said that the inclusion of Meta is the biggest cryptocurrency patent commitment till now.
Formed in 2020, COPA boosts crypto innovation by bringing down the chances of patent litigation. It helps by creating open-source settings to protect core technologies for the users.
“COPA is building a cross-industry effort with the goal of uniting large technology companies like Meta, financial services organisations, crypto-native companies, and more to protect and advance cryptocurrency innovation,” said COPA in a statement.
“Meta’s leadership in COPA underlines the importance of protecting open source technologies. Companies large and small can encourage innovation by collaborating on fundamental infrastructure. This is one step further to advancing COPA’s mission, which is to remove legal obstacles so cryptocurrency can become the backbone for transferring value anywhere in the world,” said Max Sills, IP Counsel at Block and General Manager of COPA, in a statement.
By joining COPA, Meta will have to follow COPA’s patent pledge of not to enforce its principal cryptocurrency patents against anyone, “except for defensive reasons, effectively making these patents freely available for all to use,” the statement said.
COPA has more than thirty members including Coinbase, Block, MicroStrategy, Kraken, Chaincode Labs and others.
The members of COPA need to pool in all their crypto-technology to create a shared patent library. According to COPA, “this collective shield of patents provides members access to each others’ patents to deter and defend against patent aggressors, thereby empowering every member, regardless of whether they individually own patents or not, with tools and leverage to defend themselves against patent aggressors.”