Summary
- tZERO has accused Securitize of infringing patents covering tokenized securities infrastructure and sent a cease-and-desist letter.
- Securitize responded Monday by filing suit in federal court seeking a ruling that it does not infringe upon Securitize’s patents.
- The dispute emerges as Wall Street ramps up efforts to tokenize stocks, bonds and investment funds, a market that some forecasts estimate could reach trillions of dollars.
Two of the biggest companies in the tokenization space are heading toward a legal showdown over intellectual property just as the industry they helped create begins to seriously court institutional investors on Wall Street.
Securitize stated Monday it filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Delaware seeking a declaratory judgment that it does not infringe patents owned by rival tokenization firm tZERO.
The move came a week after tZERO sent Securitize a cease-and-desist letter accusing the firm of violating several patents related to blockchain-based securities infrastructure.
Tokenization — the process by which the ownership rights of real-world assets like stocks, bonds or real estate can be converted into tokens on a blockchain — is one of the fastest-growing areas in the digital assets space.
Global banks, exchanges and asset managers — including BlackRock, JPMorgan, Nasdaq, NYSE, to name a few — have increasingly embraced tokenization. Proponents argue the process can modernize capital markets by streamlining issuance, settlement and ownership tracking.
