Coinbase Sued Over Patent Infringement

Crypto exchange Coinbase is the subject of yet another lawsuit, this time for patent infringement. The company is facing a suit related to its digital trading technology according to reports by Reuters.

Coinbase Global Inc is facing a patent lawsuit filed by Veritaseum Capital LLC in a Delaware federal court and claims that the exchange infringed a patent awarded to the company’s founder Reggie Middleton by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in December 2021. Veritaseum has accused several Coinbase services including its, blockchain technology, Coinbase Cloud, Coinbase Pay, Coinbase Wallet, Delegate and Validator, and other technologies of infringing on this patent. Veritaseum is seeking $350 million in damages given the “substantial profits” Coinbase has procured through its alleged infringement.

Veritaseum was the issuer of the token VERI, and in 2019, its founder, Middleton, and two of his Veritaseum entities paid over $9.4 million to the U.S. SEC, including a $1 mullion penalty against the founder himself, to settle charges of a “fraudulent scheme” to sell the token in 2017 and 2018. The SEC accused the company of manipulating the token’s price, and misleading investors about information surrounding potential gains. In a similar vein, Coinbase itself was sued by the SEC in July for allegedly listing unregistered securities on its platform but vehemently denies that any such tokens are securities.

According to Veritaseum Capital’s attorney, Carl Brundidge of Brundidge Stanger, Coinbase was “uncooperative” when they had tried to settle the matter out of court. The court filing adds:

Defendant makes, uses, sells and/or supports infringing products and services on the Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum and Solana platforms as well as NFTs for its products and offerings that run on top of and facilitate said platforms.

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