Bancor Launches Historic Patent War Against Uniswap – Could This $40B DEX Battle Redefine DeFi IP Rights?
Bancor launched a landmark patent lawsuit against Uniswap on May 20, accusing the dominant DEX of eight years of unauthorized use of its patented automated market maker (AMM) technology, threatening to upend DeFi’s open-source foundations and IP norms.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by Bancor’s nonprofit Bprotocol Foundation and original developer LocalCoin, claims Uniswap’s protocol infringes on Bancor’s 2017 patents that transformed decentralized trading, demanding damages and challenging how DeFi innovation is protected and monetized.
Legal Tussle Over AMM Patent Infringement Challenges DeFi Ethos
Central to the dispute is Bancor’s claim that it invented and patented the constant product automated market maker (CPAMM) model that powers permissionless on-chain trades through smart contracts.
Bancor noted that it filed the original patent application for its invention on January 8, 2017, and released a white paper the following month.
The Bancor Protocol, launched in June 2017, was the first DEX powered by an AMM model. Bancor was granted two patents and launched the first CPAMM-based DEX that year.
Uniswap, which launched its v1 protocol in 2018, has since grown into the dominant DEX in crypto with over $40 billion in total value locked.
Bancor now alleges that Uniswap has been infringing on its patents from the beginning and has done so without licensing, authorization, or collaboration.
