In December 2024, Wright was sentenced to a suspended 12-month prison term for continuing to assert his copyright over Bitcoin in defiance of earlier court orders.
While Wright has obtained nearly 4,000 patents related to blockchain technology, critics and organizations like the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) argue his actions constitute "legal terrorism" aimed at obstructing open-source innovation. Renowned Cryptographer Says His Patent Was an O...
However, these claims have been systematically rejected by legal and technical authorities: In December 2024, Wright was sentenced to a
The court concluded that Wright had "lied to the court extensively" and submitted forged documents to support his claims. In December 2024
Conversely, other cryptographers like held legitimate patents for technologies foundational to Bitcoin—such as the Merkle Tree —well before the 2008 whitepaper, though these are viewed as historical precursors rather than claims to Bitcoin's ownership. Crypto Open Patent Alliance v Wright | Freshfields
The phrase refers to , an Australian computer scientist who has spent years claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto , the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin. Wright has often asserted that his extensive patent portfolio was the "original" intellectual property foundation for the Bitcoin system.