8 Companies That Have Applied for Encryption Patents

Just yesterday, CoinDesk reported that eBay had filed two cryptocurrency-related patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the agency responsible for issuing patents and registering trademarks for products and intellectual property.

In doing so, the web giants join a slew of crypto and non-crypto companies that have already filed applications to protect their products.

     It’s a largely contentious topic in the open-source bitcoin community, and CoinDesk has rounded up some of the more high-profile patent applications.

1.21 Inc

Well-funded companies in the field filed two patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, one of which is for a circuit for mining digital currencies. The agency published the patents on Oct. 15.

The patent application was filed last April and lists 21 INC co-founder and chairman Matthew Pauker, co-founder and chief architect Nigel Drego, president and co-founder Veerbhan Kheterpal, and co-founder Daniel Fir as inventors.

"The present invention relates to the mining of digital currencies, such as cryptocurrency," the application reads. "The mining circuits and mining operations described herein may be used to mine any digital medium of exchange, such as digital currency, credits, rewards, or points."

2. Coinbase

Just last month, CoinDesk reported that San Francisco-based company Coinbase had filed nine bitcoin patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The application was filed on March 17, 2015, and the document contains patent applications for various Bitcoin products, including hot wallets, instant exchanges (launched in June), Bitcoin exchanges, and Bitcoin tipping buttons.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong took to Reddit to defend his company’s decision to file for patent protection.

In an interview with CoinDesk, he said:

“While it would be irresponsible for Coinbase not to apply for patents (we need to protect ourselves from patent wars by large companies), we can certainly commit to not using patents to attack smaller companies.”

3. Bank of America

Bank of America also made headlines last month when it filed a patent for a wire transfer system that leverages cryptocurrency technology.

The U.S. financial services giant filed the application on March 17, seeking to protect a system that uses blockchain technology as a payment method to transfer funds electronically between customer accounts.

In discussing the purpose of this invention, its authors, Thomas Edward Durbin and James Gregory Ronca, wrote:

"Businesses process a large number of outbound wire transfer requests every day. As technology improves, foreign transactions become more common. For some customers, it may be necessary to electronically transfer funds in a shorter time than the current outbound wire transfer system allows."

4. BitGo

The patent application filed by BitGo has crypto enthusiasts and prominent industry figures concerned, leading the Bitcoin multi-signature wallet provider to discuss the issue in a blog post:

“Today we are pleased to announce BitGo’s decision to adopt the Innovator Patent Agreement (IPA), a patent assignment framework that allows engineers, designers and other professionals to retain control of the patents for their inventions. As of today, BitGo has no patents publicly available, and Danshui intends to use this agreement when patents are published.”

The Innovator Patent Agreement was pioneered by Twitter in 2012, and BitGo added that patents can only be used for defensive purposes, "which means that patents granted to practitioners cannot be used in offensive litigation without the consent of the investors themselves."

5. MasterCard

Last year, global financial services giant MasterCard filed a patent to enable the incorporation of Bitcoin into the design of online shopping carts, which are set to be rolled out around the world.

In an interview with CoinDesk, a MasterCard representative said: “Every day we seek new ways to bring more convenience to consumers when they shop. This application is just one example of exploring ways to create flexibility for consumers when spending with their shopping cart.”

MasterCard added that the patent should not be viewed as an endorsement of Bitcoin:

“This application is filed to protect our intellectual property and does not represent a commitment to an idea or concept.”

6. Amazon

E-commerce giant Amazon has been granted a Bitcoin-related cloud computing patent that outlines the use of the digital currency as a means of payment for cloud computing services in Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s cloud computing platform that CEO Jeff Bezos has described as a $5 billion business that is growing rapidly.

As CoinDesk reported at the time, Amazon was granted the patent after publicly stating that it had no interest in accepting digital currencies, even as rival eBay hinted that it was integrating bitcoin payments.

7. Western Union International Money Transfer Company

Colorado-based money transfer giant Western Union received a patent award in April 2014, and subsequent reports showed that the company claimed to have an alternative currency exchange.

While Bitcoin is not mentioned, the document states:

“Alternative currencies are an emerging trend. The long-term loss of confidence in monetary transactions has led to the creation of some alternative currencies; some are intended to combat inflation, others are simply a medium of exchange between members of a physical or virtual community.”

8. IBM

IBM filed a patent application in 2012 to be able to track the value of digital currencies.

The patent application was published in 2013, and IBM's application states:

“The ability to verify and validate digitally-tagged tokens over the life of any particular token will strengthen trust and viability, allow e-money to operate in radically different economic systems, and more easily facilitate participation in both sovereign and non-standard currencies.”