If you’re tired of grant tweets and patent trolls, we’ve got great news. Today Square is announcing the formation of the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA). As you know, from Square Crypto to Cash App, Square is in the fight to keep bitcoin and crypto free and open.

The way to do this is to make sure that the tech driving both is available to everyone. The success of cryptocurrencies, as with any new technology, depends on people being able to build what they want, which is not possible when every new idea gets tied up by patent litigation.

There is growing concern that “patent lockup” could stifle innovation and adoption from bitcoin to the most obscure cryptocurrency. In order to tackle this problem, the crypto community will need to once again do what it is so famous for and come together for the greater good.

COPA is an industry-wide invitation to the patent equivalent of an open-source community. Its two-pronged approach includes (1) a pledge that no member will ever assert their patents on foundational cryptocurrency technology, except defensively.

And (2) the creation of a shared patent library that lets members use each other’s patents as needed defensively, giving even small companies a shield with which to protect themselves against patent aggressors.

As more companies join and the shared patent library grows, the freer we’ll all be to pursue crypto’s future. As a good faith gesture, we’ll be making the first move and opening all of our crypto patents for future COPA members to use.

Okay, here’s the link: https://open-patent.org/ 

Back to grants tomorrow.