Blockchain and Binance face suits over crypto trading tech
Intercurrency Software sues the two platforms alleging infringement of three of its patents | Technology covers consolidated currency trading and exchange, which enables the user to trade in a preferred currency.
A Texan software firm has sued crypto platforms Blockchain.com and Binance in two identical lawsuits filed this week alleging infringement of three related patents.
UK-based firm Blockchain.com, a cryptocurrency financial services firm based in northern England; and Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in the Cayman Islands, are both accused of infringing three patents owned by Intercurrency Software.
In the complaints, filed in Texas this week, on August 16, Intercurrency alleges that Blockchain’s exchange app and website, and Binance’s web trading platform, have infringed its patents and “generated substantial financial revenues and benefits therefrom”.
The patents at issue (US patent numbers 10,062,107; 10,776,863; and 11,449,930), owned by inventor Jacky Benmoha, cover the technology behind consolidated currency trading.
The ‘107 patent, dated 2018, covers a “consolidated trading platform”. The ‘863 patent, dated 2020, covers “methods and apparatus for displaying trading assets in a preferred currency”; and the ‘930 patent, dated 2022, covers a “method and apparatus for trading assets in different currencies”.
In other words, the technology enables the listing of prices, transaction results, and market and currency exchange rates, and provides a currency conversion tool.
Trading solutions
Intercurrency claims that its patents “overcame a number of specific technological problems in the industry and provided specific technological solutions”.
For example, as of the date of invention, the prior art of financial service providers that allowed foreign investors to trade US securities required the trades to be done in US currency, which required the use of foreign currency exchange brokers before and after trading to realise profits.
“This did not allow foreign investors to have ‘certain knowledge of what profit or loss he was going to get because the currency exchange rate must be obtained for a bulk amount at another time, which may fluctuate significantly enough to affect the ultimate profit or loss’,” said the complaint.
The technology, it went on to explain, “relates to methods, processes and systems for conducting security transactions in a preferred currency, regardless of what original or market currency the securities are being traded in and where the transaction may take place”.
The cited patents have been issued to “well-known industry leaders”, including the Bank of America, according to the complaint.
Crypto giants
Blockchain, purported to be the world’s first Bitcoin blockchain explorer in 2011, offers users a platform on which to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies.
Binance—on which users can buy, trade, and hold more than 350 cryptocurrencies—was described as the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world as of last September, according to CoinMarketCap.
Just last month, Intercurrency partially settled a lawsuit that it brought against several Fidelity Brokerage Services units, alleging patent infringement by trading platforms including those run by Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab, and TD Ameritrade.
InterCurrency is represented by Randall Garteiser at US firm Garteiser Honea.
The complaint was filed at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and the assigned judge is Rodney Gilstrap.
WIPR has contacted Blockchain, Binance and counsel for Intercurrency for comment.
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