Bitcoin's most controversial
mining firm, Bitmain, is under threat of having a key chip patent revoked.
Forcing a review of the patent
is an ex-employee of the China-based mining giant: former director of design
Yang Zuoxing, who has now founded a rival mining firm called Bitewei.
According to documents
reviewed and confirmed, the State Intellectual Property Office of
China (SIPO) is proceeding with a review that could determine if Bitmain can
protect its current market dominance under the shield of the patent claim.
Based on SIPO's data, Bitmain
filed a patent application for "Serial power supply circuit, virtual
digital coin mining machine and computer server" in July 2015, which was
authorized on March 30, 2016.
According to the document, the
technology provides higher efficiency for cryptocurrency mining chips, reducing
electricity consumption and cost. The feature is said to significantly extend
the life of miners, potentially resulting in far higher returns from mining
activities.
With its patent-backed
products, Bitmain is now a dominant force in bitcoin mining. Apart from
supplying chips to individual miners and mining pools, Bitmain also runs the
mining pool Antpool, which accounts for 20.3 percent of the global bitcoin hash
power.
Tit-for-tat battle
Yet, based on the patent law
in China, any organization or individual that disagrees with a certain patent
authorization can file an application to revoke it, if they provide evidence
for their claim. In his review application, Yang claimed that the serial power
supply circuit has long been in use and is widely and publicly documented.
While the authority does not
specify a timeline when a decision will be made, Yang expects to hear from SIPO
in about three months.
He told CoinDesk:
"If [SIPO] stand by the previous decision, we may need to appeal and file more applications to revoke with different evidence."
Yet, Yang did not bring up the
procedure voluntarily, he indicated. Instead, it is a countermove made in
response to a lawsuit filed by Bitmain against him, claiming patent
infringement.
A graduate of Tsinghua
University with a doctorate in Engineering Physics, Yang's career has focused
on chip design, with over a decade working for several hardware companies in
China, and authoring over 20 patents authorized by SIPO.
From 2015 to 2016, he served
as Bitmain's director of design, during which time the Bitmain patent was filed
and authorized. While his name was not among the group of patent inventors,
Yang said that he designed the AntMiner S7 and S9, the two popular bitcoin
mining chips manufactured and supplied by Bitmain.
After his departure from the
firm, Yang started his own company Bitewei, based in Shenzhen, which
manufactures the Whatsminer and also uses the serial power supply circuit to
lower electricity consumption.
Bitmain subsequently sued
Bitewei for infringing its patent right. According to Yang, Bitmain initially
asked for ¥26 billion ($3.8 billion), but later changed the claim to ¥2.6
million ($380,000) as per the court's requirement.
When contacted,
Bitmain did not respond to inquiries for comments on the lawsuit or the
application for revoking its patent.
Source: Coindesk
