Bancor sues Uniswap for infringing its DEX smart contract technology patent

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, the developers behind Bancor have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Uniswap Labs and the Uniswap Foundation, accusing them of illegally using its underlying decentralized trading platform technology.

The lawsuit was filed by the nonprofit organization Bprotocol Foundation, which supports the development of the Bancor protocol, and Bancor's original developer LocalCoin Ltd. The lawsuit has been submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that the Uniswap protocol is built on Bancor's patented Constant Product Automated Market Maker (CPAMM) infrastructure.

Bancor invented the CPAMM model in 2016 and developed a mechanism for permissionless on-chain trading supported by smart contracts. The protocol published its white paper in 2017 and submitted a U.S. patent application. Bancor was granted two patents that same year and launched the first CPAMM-based DEX.

The lawsuit claims that the original protocol launched by Uniswap in November 2018 used the same CPAMM design without authorization. Bancor accuses Uniswap of deploying its intellectual property without consent, thereby "profiting unfairly."