The cases against Marathon Digital Holdings and Core Scientific follow Malikie Innovations’ acquisition of 32,000 “non-core” patents from the communications company and former phone maker, BlackBerry, in 2023.

“This case centers on ground-breaking innovations in elliptic curve cryptography […] that years later were recognized and selected by the designers of Bitcoin,” the filings state.

The lawsuit claims the defendants are using ECC-based cryptographic methods covered under the Malikie-held patents to support their Bitcoin mining operations.

Bacina also highlighted that if infringement is shown, it still will not be over. He explained that “a second issue will arise, being whether the miners, by using open source, are in fact infringing at all.”