Abandonment of U.S. Patent US20150262173A1

The Abandonment of Crypto Patents by Industry Leaders.

An area that will undoubtedly need more bolstering in order for cryptocurrencies to become more widely accepted is in the world of patents and parallel technologies.

Patent US20150262173A1 for example was purchased and abandoned by Bank of America after acquirement from it’s inventor Thomas Durbin. This patent was for the infrastructure that would be used to facilitate wire transfers between customers with cryptocurrency.

Formally termed “System and Method for Wire Transfers Using Cryptocurrency” in the official publication, it was filed by Bank of America in 2014 and has been forgotten ever since.

Why Bank of America decided to abandon the patent is unknown, however such abandonments are common. Even with detailed abstracts and schematics available, there are a growing number of mainstream companies that are still on the fence when it comes to cryptocurrency.

The key features of this patent were to include:

initiate the purchase of a first quantity of a cryptocurrency from the first cryptocurrency exchange, wherein the first quantity of cryptocurrency is equivalent to the first amount of the first currency;
initiate, essentially simultaneously as the initiation of the purchase, the sale of the first quantity of the cryptocurrency at the second cryptocurrency exchange, wherein the sale of the first quantity of cryptocurrency results in a second amount of a second currency; and
transferring the first quantity of the cryptocurrency to a second cryptocurrency exchange;
These are all standard features of wire transfer technology with cryptocurrency integration. It is worth noting however that familiar patents have cited Patent US20150262173A1 with Patent US20150220928A1 (Invented by R. Allen) planning on a platform for buyers and sellers comprising different modules containing automating features thus allowing for a fully automated experience for a user all the way from “account set-up to funds settlement”.

Arguably, it is difficult to tell whether this technology would have succeeded as this level of automation would certainly involve some user input as well involve a fair amount of development before it would be feasible, but it is certainly concerning that this technology is not being implemented or even attempting to be implemented and the fact that large investors are shrugging interest in these patents points to some doubts still being held.

Resources

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20150262173A1/en
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20150220928A1/en