Explosive 12-Year-Old USPTO Document Reveals U.S. Government May Own ’XRP’ Patent Rights
Decades-old paperwork just dropped a bombshell on crypto—turns out Uncle Sam might have had dibs on XRP all along.
The Patent Puzzle
A dusty USPTO filing from twelve years back surfaces—sparking immediate chaos across crypto forums and courtrooms. Shows detailed government claims over the very technology underpinning Ripple's digital asset.
Legal Tornado Brewing
Speculation’s raging—could this reshape Ripple’s endless SEC battle? Inject fresh uncertainty into XRP’s regulatory limbo? Traders are already hedging—because nothing says 'stable investment' like a government patent popping up over a decade late.
Finance’s Ironic Twist
Wall Street’s probably grinning—watching crypto’s ‘decentralized’ darling get tangled in the ultimate centralized web. Guess sometimes the revolution gets patented before it even starts.
Does the U.S. government own the XRP patent?
While the document is legit, it wasn’t filed by the federal government, nor is it a patent application. It’s nothing more than a trademark registration filed by OpenCoin, Inc., which is now known as Ripple.
OpenCoin was founded in September 2012 by Chris Larsen and McCaleb. It rebranded to Ripple Labs in 2013 and was shortened to Ripple in 2015.
Trademark registrations are not a vote of approval. It’s something a company does to seek protection for its brand names and stop everyone else from using them. In this case, Ripple filed to protect the “XRP” word name, and it’s just one of the many applications initiated by the company.
Earlier this year, Ripple filed a trademark application for “Ripple Custody,” raising speculations that the firm could launch a crypto wallet or custodial services. It had also filed for “Ripple Payments,” “RLUSD,” and “Ripple USD” trademarks in 2024, in anticipation of launching its stablecoin, RLUSD.
According to the USPTO, Ripple Labs currently has 67 trademark applications. Elsewhere, a report shows Ripple Labs has issued a total of 39 patents globally, with only 18 having been granted. Of all the 39 patents, more than 62% patents are active.
XRP becomes the third-largest crypto
XRP, meanwhile, has reclaimed the third spot in the crypto market. At the time of writing, it was trading at $3.08 on Coingecko, with a $183 billion market cap. The price has been soaring so far this year, as investors began to see an end to the years-long legal tussle between Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Cryptopolitan reported Friday that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has approved an agreement for both sides to drop their appeals. The case now moves into final enforcement proceedings at the district court level. Judge Analisa Torres’s ruling will remain in effect once dismissal is granted.
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