UK Supreme Court Turns Down Craig Wright’s Appeal
In a recent development, the U.K. Supreme Court has rejected Craig Wright’s appeal against a previous ruling in his case against Peter McCormack. A lawyer representing McCormack confirmed this news to CoinDesk. Last year, a panel of judges had ruled that Wright was entitled to only 1 GBP in compensation for his libel claim against bitcoin podcaster Peter McCormack, who had questioned Wright’s claim of being Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin.
Rupert Cowper-Coles, a partner at law firm RPC representing McCormack, expressed satisfaction with the Supreme Court’s decision, stating that the judgment stands, including the nominal damages award of one pound, which Wright had attempted to appeal twice before unsuccessfully. CoinDesk reached out to Wright’s lawyers, McCormack, and the Supreme Court for comments, but they did not respond before the time of publication.
This recent setback for Wright comes amidst another ongoing legal battle he is fighting against various cryptocurrency companies and bitcoin developers. Interestingly, these entities rejected an offer to settle a long-standing case that accuses them of infringing Wright’s alleged copyright to Bitcoin’s white paper, blockchain database, and file format by accessing the bitcoin network and its databases for their operations.
The non-profit organization Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA), which represents the 13 Bitcoin Core developers and companies like Coinbase and Block named in Wright’s original legal complaint from 2016, tweeted their rejection of the proposed settlement. COPA highlighted that the offer contained loopholes that would enable Wright to sue them again in the future.