Why Jack Dorsey's Co-founded Crypto Patent Alliance Sues Self-Proclaimed Bitcoin Creator

The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) — a non-profit blockchain intellectual property-pooling group formed by Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey — filed a lawsuit against Craig Wright in the High Court of Justice in England and Wales.

What Happened: According to COPA's tweet from April 12, the organization "initiated a lawsuit asking the UK High Court to declare that Mr. Craig Wright does not have copyright ownership over the Bitcoin White Paper."

The move aims to support those in the Bitcoin BTC/USD community who have been legally threatened by Wright for hosting the first document describing the coin.

Why It Matters: Craig Wright is infamous in the industry for making multiple claims to be the Bitcoin creator hiding behind Satoshi Nakamoto's pseudonym and promoting altcoins claiming that they are the "real Bitcoin."

First, he promoted Bitcoin Cash BCH/USD and later Bitcoin SV BSV/USD.

With this claim, many of the most powerful companies operating in the crypto asset space are trying to prevent Wright from continuing his activities.

COPA members include crypto exchanges Coinbase, Kraken, and BitBank, hardware wallet producer SatoshiLabs, Bitcoin payment processor BitPay, Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin investment and market intelligence company MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR), and blockchain development firm Blockstream.

What Else: The claims laid in the document ask to state that Wright is not the author or the owner of the Bitcoin white paper, and any use of the document by the claimant will not infringe any copyright that he owns.

The document also asks for an injunction retraining Wright from claiming that he is the author or owner of the document in question.

Lastly, the filing also requests an order that would force Writch to disseminate the judgment in the case.