Obiter’s treat of the week was a return to the Rolls Building for a brief encore to Mr Justice Mellor’s triumphant performance in COPA v Wright, the ‘bitcoin identity’ trial. Alas the hearing was only a footnote, dealing with a couple of matters arising following the judge’s forthright ruling that computer scientist Dr Craig Wright (pictured above) is not ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ the mysterious – and presumably extremely wealthy – inventor of bitcoin.
Just two working days after that finding, on 14 March, Wright’s opponents noticed that the Australian entrepreneur had filed to transfer his shares in a holding company to one registered in Singapore. ‘Understandably,’ the judge observed, ‘that gave rise to serious concerns... that Dr Wright was implementing measures to seek to evade the cost consequences of his loss at trial.’
Unusually, considering that he has yet to publish his written judgment, let alone deal with costs, on 27 March the judge ordered Wright to pay £6m into court as security. The latest hearing was to deal with matters arising from that. One was a grumble raised by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) to the effect that, while Wright indeed coughed up on the deadline, his cheque did not clear for another couple of days. Meanwhile, Wright says he has been unable to comply with an order to disclose all his assets over £10,000 because of the freezing order itself.
Shouldn’t the court have something to say about this behaviour? Possibly, the judge said, but – to summarise brutally – that is none of COPA’s business. However he did impose another £1m costs protection order, on behalf of another party in the case, a group of software developers who were being sued for alleged infringements of Wright’s now-discredited IP claims.
All good fun, but it served mainly to whet our appetite for the main event. Mr Justice Mellor has indicated that hand-down of a ‘fairly lengthy’ judgment could come as early as next month.
Secure your seats now.
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