During the late evening of June 1, Bitcoin.com received an email from an anonymous source who has been researching possible patent infringements associated with the Segregated Witness (Segwit) protocol. According to the researcher, Segwit may be at risk violating two specific patents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Segregated Witness and Prior Patents
The patent researcher who contacted our team has been investigating Segwit’s possible relationship with similar patents filed across the globe. It seems during the investigation; two USPTO patents were found that Segwit protocol may infringe upon. The first patent discovered was US 8261082 a “Self-signing electronic documents” which was published in 2012. According to our source, Claim 11 of US 8261082 appears to be relevant to Segwit. Claim 11 of the document reads;
“A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving a signed first electronic document, the first electronic document including digital signature rights information, a digital signature module and a digital signature generated by the digital signature module, the digital signature module, which when loaded performs digital signature operations; accessing, by one or more computers, the first electronic document in a user application; validating the digital signature in the first electronic document using the digital signature module in the user application; accessing a second electronic document, the second electronic document being a document other than the first electronic document, the second electronic document being identified by the digital signature rights information in the first electronic document; and performing digital signature operations on the second electronic document.”
Another Self-Signing Electronic Document Patent Created by the Same Inventor
Additionally, there is another patent, US 7370206, created by the same inventor Oliver Goldman published back in 2008. The patent is also filed under the name “Self-signing electronic documents.” Emails sent to us from the patent investigator details that it appears Segwit may infringe upon Claim 1 of Goldman’s intellectual property.
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