Bitcoin is in the Wright

On Monday 28 June the High Court ordered Default Judgment in favour of Dr Wright, the creator of Bitcoin in his claim against an anonymous blogger, known as Cøbra.

Cøbra is the operator and publisher of the website bitcoin.org, in which it promotes the digital commodity ‘Bitcoin Core’. Cøbra has published on its website a copy of Dr Wright’s academic paper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This publication has been made without the consent of Dr Wight, the copyright owner.

Dr Wright’s legal representatives wrote to Cøbra informing it of Mr Wright’s intellectual property rights that subsist in the academic paper and requested the paper be removed from the website. Cøbra did not comply with Dr Wright’s request which led to proceedings being issued against Cøbra. Cøbra did not respond to Dr Wright’s claim. On 25 May, Dr Wight made an application for Default Judgment against Cøbra. HHJ Hodge QC heard the application and ordered Default Judgment in favour of Dr Wright. Cøbra did attend the hearing but requested to maintain its anonymity. HHJ Hodge QC has ordered an inquiry as to damages as a result of Cøbra’s infringement.

If you have any questions on the above, please do not hesitate to contact the team at McDaniels Law on 0191 281 4000 or legal@mcdanielslaw.com. Further, please reserve your place at the upcoming webinar focusing on the online challenges with social media platforms and your intellectual property hosted by Dids MacDonald of Anti-Copying in Design and our Kelly Hudson. You can reserve your place at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3BHU-T6hR-yHJFHg6AmV7Q.