Core patent in MakerDAO lawsuit acquired, bringing end to cryptography dispute

The DeFi Education Fund (DEF) on Monday reached an agreement with True Return Systems (TRS) to purchase patents for oracle-like technology. The disputed patents were at the center of two lawsuits against MakerDAO and Compound, two decentralized finance protocols.

Oracles are entities that connect the blockchain to external systems such as digital asset price feeds and are a crucial tool in DeFi. The acquisition ends DEF's battle with the company, which it previously described as a “patent troll.”

TRS filed a lawsuit Manufacturer DAO and composite Use Oracle-like technology to claim ownership in 2022 “Method and system for separating computerized ledger storage and processing for improved performanceDEF said the allegations are “patent infringements,” but the advocacy group and lawyers for both protocols disputed the claims, calling the patent lawsuit overreach.

“Because oracle technology is so important to the DeFi sector, we believe there are potential issues that could violate the rights of developers and users,” Amanda DeFi's chief legal counsel said. Tuminelli said on Monday Decryption.

DEF declined to disclose the settlement figure, saying the negotiations were “confidential.”

According to court documents, TRS’ lawsuit sought to bar the protocol from “manufacturing, using, or selling” products based on Oracle-like technology, but that didn’t happen. TRS filed a motion to dismiss its lawsuit against the protocol on Monday, a decision that came shortly after the company agreed to sell its patents to DEF.

The patent purchase not only ensures that MakerDAO and Compound can continue to use oracle-like technology for on-chain price feeds, but also ensures that other protocols can use the technology for a host of other applications, Tumminelli said. Decryption.

“Protocols that use technologies like Oracle… [have been] “Next, the patent will no longer be available to anyone else,” Tumminelli said.

DEF said it plans to make the patent publicly available, meaning all protocols would have the legal right to use the oracle-like technology described in the intellectual property filing.

DEF has been fighting the patent for years, It plans to file a petition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in late 2023 to invalidate the TRS patent, thereby invalidating the basis for its lawsuit against MakerDAO and Compound.

“For those unaware, we have petitioned the United States Patent and Trademark Office to revoke the patents being used by ‘patent trolls’ to sue the DAO and our protocol,” DEF said. said In a Twitter post from last September. However, they eventually decided to purchase the patent, which resolved the issue more quickly.

“We felt the most efficient way to resolve our petition and all of these two lawsuits was to settle,” Tuminelli said.