The self-proclaimed creator of Bitcoin, Craig Wright, has lost his recent copyright claim in a UK court. Wright has argued that variants on the Bitcoin creation, such as Bitcoin Cash, breach his intellectual property rights, according to a Coindesk report.
The UK judge presiding over the case has found that the file format of Bitcoin Cash is protected by copyright. Subsequently, the ruling goes against the self-proclaimed inventor of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin Creator Still a Mystery
Craig Wright is a name that still may be foreign to some, but he is the self-professed creator of Bitcoin. Coindesk notes that Wright claims to be the entity responsible for the 2008 Bitcoin white paper under the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto”.
Wright recently filed a copyright claim seeking to “block the operation of Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as they breach his intellectual property rights.” Judge James Mellor, who presided over the case, ruled against Wright’s claims on Tuesday.
Mellor stated that the file format of Bitcoin cannot be treated as literary work because Wright has failed to show “how they were first recorded.” A file format is the sequence of a header and a list of transactions that work to format a block, and Wright’s inability to pass a test in copyright law known as fixation sealed the verdict.
“I do not see any prospect of the law as currently stated and understood in the caselaw allowing copyright protection of subject matter which is not pressed or fixed anywhere,” Mellor stated. “It remains the case that no relevant ‘work’ has been identified containing content which defines the structure of the Bitcoin File Format,” Mellor concluded.
Additionally, Coindesk notes that “claims concerning copyright to the 2008 White Paper, and whether Wright is really the author, will be subject of later rulings,” according to the judge.