Reference page • Records reviewed September 6–7, 2026 • Last updated September 7, 2026
This page documents public records concerning Bitcoin- and blockchain-related intellectual property associated with Craig Wright, nChain, Calvin Ayre, Teranode and NeoBridge. It accompanies the editorial essay nChain, Teranode and NeoBridge: Why the IP Story Matters.
The records below distinguish patents and applications, trademarks, software rights, licenses, operating assets and corporate control. Each ownership statement is limited to the entity, asset, territory and record date identified by its source.
1. Rights and assets recorded
| Asset or right | Entity identified in the record | Evidence and scope |
|---|---|---|
| Selected US patent grants | nChain Licensing AG | Six official grant publications from March–August 2026 identify this assignee. The patent table below gives the individual records; grant publications do not establish all later assignments or licenses. |
| nChain UK’s trade and assets | Teranode Limited, subsequently Neobridge Solutions Limited | The seller’s accounts disclose a sale effective January 1, 2025. The disclosure does not enumerate the assets. Seller’s accounts, note 28. |
| TERANODE trademark | Teranode Licensing AG | Recorded owner in the Canadian trademark register following a transfer from Bitcoin Association for BSV. Canadian record. |
| NEOBRIDGE trademark | Teranode Licensing AG, Vaduz; its Zug branch is named in the Canadian application | International registration 1906121. The Canadian application and UK publication are identified below. UKIPO record; Canadian record. |
| Teranode node software license | BSV Association, named licensor | The repository publishes Open BSV License version 6. This identifies the software licensor and permissions, rather than a complete inventory of underlying IP ownership. License. |
| Teranode Group DID resolver repository | Teranode Switzerland AG, named in the copyright notice | A specific repository carries the company’s 2025 copyright notice and an Apache 2.0 license. Repository. |
| Patent rights personally retained by Wright | Not established in this review | The sample identifies Wright as inventor or co-inventor while naming a corporate assignee. It does not establish his complete personal holdings. |
2. Entities and corporate control
| Person or entity | Recorded role or relationship |
|---|---|
| Craig Steven Wright | Inventor or co-inventor on five of the six US grants listed below. |
| Calvin Edward Ayre | Listed as a person with significant control of both UK companies. The separate control disclosures are detailed below. |
| nChain UK Limited — 09823112 | Seller of the trade and assets in the January 2025 transaction. Company record. |
| nChain AG, Switzerland | Immediate parent of nChain UK in its 2024 accounts, which identify DW Discovery Selection Fund as ultimate controlling party. Seller’s accounts, note 29. |
| nChain Licensing AG, Switzerland | Assignee in the sampled patent grants and licensor identified in TAAL’s annual information form. Its complete current shareholder chain was not established. |
| Teranode Group AG, Liechtenstein | Named as immediate and ultimate parent undertaking in Teranode Limited’s 2024 accounts. Those accounts identify C Ayre as ultimate controller. Buyer’s accounts, note 10. |
| Teranode Limited / Neobridge Solutions Limited — 09994132 | The same UK company under successive names: the January 2025 buyer adopted the Neobridge name on September 4, 2026. Company record. |
| Teranode Licensing AG, Vaduz | Trademark holder/applicant. The Canadian NEOBRIDGE record names Teranode Licensing AG, Vaduz, Zweigniederlassung Zug, its Zug branch. This is distinct from nChain Licensing AG. Canadian record. |
| Teranode Switzerland AG | Company named in the DID resolver repository’s copyright notice. The notice does not identify its full asset inventory or corporate parent. Repository. |
| Bitcoin Association for BSV / BSV Association | The association named in the TERANODE trademark history and the Teranode node software license, respectively. Trademark record; software license. |
In the UK persons-with-significant-control registers reviewed, Ayre’s nChain UK entry records more than 50% but less than 75% of shares and voting rights. His Neobridge entry records 75% or more. Both include the right to appoint or remove directors. These entries and the parent-company disclosures in the accounts do not provide a reconciled ownership chain for every nChain or Teranode entity. nChain UK PSC register; Neobridge PSC register.
Historical references also use EITC Holdings, nChain Holdings and nCrypt. The 2017 announcement names nChain Holdings Limited, while the court account of the 2015 arrangements refers to the nCrypt group. These references are retained with their sources; they are not treated as a verified chain linking every similarly named company across jurisdictions. 2017 announcement; 2017 Reuters report; judgment, paragraph 39.
3. Ownership and transaction timeline
Dates distinguish transactions, announcements, applications and later publications.
| Date | Recorded event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| June 29–30, 2015 | The High Court’s later account of Stefan Matthews’s evidence describes heads of terms intended to move DeMorgan-group IP into the nCrypt group, subsequently called nChain. This recounts evidence; it is not an itemized, verified chain of title. | Judgment, paragraph 39 |
| April 12, 2017 | nChain announced acquisition of it and affiliated companies by High Tech Private Equity Fund SICAV plc, managed by Accuro Fund Solutions. Consideration was undisclosed. | nChain announcement |
| December 5, 2019 | nChain announced an Ayre investment and advisory-board role, without disclosing the amount or percentage acquired. | nChain announcement |
| April 20 / April 24, 2020 | TAAL’s patent license took effect on April 20 and was announced on April 24. Its terms are detailed in section 7. | TAAL information form; announcement |
| July 13 / August 2, 2023 | Ayre’s nChain UK PSC entry gives July 13 as the notification date. The August announcement describes an investment of up to CHF500 million combining equity, IP licensing for portfolio companies and credit. | PSC record; Ayre announcement |
| September 13, 2024 | Zero 32 Associates Ltd became Teranode Limited, retaining UK company number 09994132. | Company name history |
| January 1, 2025 | nChain UK sold its trade and assets to Teranode Limited. The sale was disclosed in accounts filed in October 2025. | Seller’s accounts, note 28 |
| January 15, 2025 | Teranode Group publicly launched and announced Giuliano Di Vitantonio’s appointment as CEO. The announcement does not provide a patent assignment schedule. | Group announcement |
| March 25, 2025 | Effective date of the TERANODE trademark transfer from Bitcoin Association for BSV to Teranode Licensing AG. | Canadian trademark record |
| April 18, 2025 | A published paper identifies two authors as Teranode Group employees and attributes relevant pending patent applications to nChain Licensing AG. | Publisher record; authors’ disclosure, page 15 |
| June 25, 2025 | Teranode Limited’s filed 2024 accounts identify its parent and controller and describe a subsequent commitment concerning service agreements and employees. | Buyer’s accounts, notes 9–10 |
| September 12 / December 3, 2025 | NEOBRIDGE claims Swiss priority from September 12. Its international registration and UK designation are dated December 3. | UKIPO record |
| March 20, 2026 | UKIPO published the NEOBRIDGE international trademark designation, including patent licensing among its listed services. | UKIPO journal publication |
| August 25, 2026 | Two US patent grant publications name Wright as inventor or co-inventor and nChain Licensing AG as assignee. | US12,719,705; US12,719,703 |
| September 4, 2026 | Teranode Limited became Neobridge Solutions Limited, retaining company number 09994132. | Companies House |
January 2025 sale and related disclosures
Note 28 of nChain UK’s 2024 accounts, on printed page 39, states:
“The Company sold its trade and assets to Teranode Limited on 01/01/2025.”
The disclosure supplies neither an asset schedule nor consideration for the sale. It does not identify the Swiss patent portfolio as an asset transferred. Seller’s accounts, note 28.
The buyer’s note 9 separately records a commitment to assume service agreements and employees from an unnamed company in which its ultimate beneficial owner is a minority shareholder. That note does not name nChain as the counterparty. Buyer’s accounts, note 9, printed page 7.
The April 2025 paper by Benjamin Brooks, Luigi Lunardon and Alessio Pagani states that all three worked at nChain during the research; Brooks and Lunardon were then at Teranode Group. Its disclosure attributes relevant pending patent applications to nChain Licensing AG but provides no application-number schedule. Authors’ disclosure, page 15.
The up-to-CHF500-million amount announced in 2023 covered an equity acquisition, an IP licensing agreement and a credit line. The announcement does not allocate the total among those components or state the price of the January 2025 UK asset sale. Ayre Group announcement.
4. Patent records, inventorship and portfolio counts
Official US grant examples
All six publications below identify nChain Licensing AG, Zug, Switzerland, as assignee. This is a selected sample, not a representative sample or portfolio census. The entries establish the assignee stated at grant, rather than a complete current ownership or legal-status history.
| Patent and official source | Grant date | Recorded inventor or inventors |
|---|---|---|
| US12,719,705 B2 — Methods and systems for distributed blockchain functionalities | August 25, 2026 | Craig Steven Wright |
| US12,719,703 B2 — Revoking access to a network | August 25, 2026 | Chloe Tartan; Alexander Mackay; Craig Steven Wright |
| US12,676,762 B2 — Physically unclonable functions | July 7, 2026 | Jack Owen Davies; Craig Steven Wright |
| US12,619,982 B2 — Single-use tokens | May 5, 2026 | Bassem Ammar; Wei Zhang; Craig Steven Wright |
| US12,615,164 B2 — Blockchain based transaction protocol | April 28, 2026 | Andrew James Mee |
| US12,574,227 B2 — Bio-locked seed | March 10, 2026 | Antoaneta Serguieva; Craig Steven Wright |
The sample includes a sole-inventor Wright patent assigned to a company and a patent naming another inventor without Wright. Inventorship counts and company portfolio counts therefore measure different sets of records.
Supplementary European records
Google Patents displayed the following information when reviewed. Contemporary ownership in the EPO and relevant national registers was not independently verified. Google’s assignee and legal-status fields are qualified by its own disclaimer.
| Publication | Displayed grant publication date | Displayed assignee and inventors |
|---|---|---|
| EP4087183B1 — Time-release encryption over a blockchain network | August 20, 2025 | nChain Licensing AG; Craig Wright and Thomas Trevethan |
| EP4340295B1 — Transferring access to a digital asset | May 14, 2025 | nChain Licensing AG; Craig Wright, John Fletcher and Thomas Trevethan |
A supplementary US application record, US20220027903A1, includes inventor-to-company assignments and later entries categorized as name changes involving nChain Holdings and nChain Licensing. Its February 2025 recordal does not by itself establish a sale in that month. Google displayed the application as abandoned; that status was not independently confirmed in USPTO Patent Center.
Wright’s personal rights and the original Bitcoin materials
This review did not establish a complete inventory of patents, applications, royalties or contractual rights retained personally by Wright, or interests held through other entities. The sampled corporate assignments do not establish that his personal holdings are zero.
In its May 20, 2024 judgment, the High Court stated that Wright was not the author of the Bitcoin white paper or the initial Bitcoin software, was not the person operating as Satoshi Nakamoto in the relevant period, and did not create the Bitcoin system. The identity findings were announced on March 14. That judgment did not adjudicate the validity or ownership of every later nChain patent. Judgment, paragraphs 7 and 939.
Portfolio size and status
On February 6, 2024, nChain reported more than 3,900 patents and applications, including more than 1,090 granted patents. These are historical company-reported totals, not a verified current inventory or a count of Wright’s inventions. nChain announcement.
No normalized worldwide total was established for patents naming Wright, applications assigned to nChain Licensing AG, distinct invention families, or rights currently active, pending, expired, abandoned or revoked. Multiple applications and national grants can belong to one invention family, with different ownership or status histories.
The records include blockchain transactions and mining, network access, biometrics and cryptography. Their inclusion here as Bitcoin- or blockchain-related records does not establish that every claim is exclusive to Bitcoin or that a particular implementation infringes.
5. Trademark records
TERANODE
The Canadian record for application 2223943, international registration 1697341, identifies Teranode Licensing AG as registered owner. It records:
| Date | Trademark event |
|---|---|
| March 25, 2025 | Effective transfer from Bitcoin Association for BSV to Teranode Licensing AG |
| May 1, 2025 | Ownership change entered in the Canadian record |
| July 18, 2025 | Canadian registration TMA1332864 |
These are trademark events recorded by the Canadian office; they do not document a patent transfer. Canadian TERANODE record.
NEOBRIDGE
The UKIPO publication identifies Teranode Licensing AG, Vaduz, with Swiss priority dated September 12, 2025 and international registration and UK designation dated December 3, 2025. UKIPO published the designation on March 20, 2026. UKIPO record.
The Canadian record is application 2461671, associated with international registration 1906121, and names Teranode Licensing AG, Vaduz, Zweigniederlassung Zug. At review, the Canadian application was formalized and awaiting examination; it was not a Canadian registration. Canadian NEOBRIDGE record.
The UK publication lists software, blockchain data services, authentication and other activities. Its Class 45 specification expressly includes:
- “Licensing of technology (legal services)”
- “patent licensing (legal services)”
- “licensing of patents and patent applications (legal services)”
General legal services and identity screening are also listed. These are specified service categories. The filing does not identify particular patents, executed licenses, infringement targets or an enforcement timetable, and it does not confirm which services are operational. UKIPO Class 45 specification.
6. Software licenses and copyright notices
The Teranode node repository publishes Open BSV License version 6, identifying BSV Association as licensor. It permits specified uses subject to conditions, including exclusive use on the BSV Blockchain. This software license does not establish a license to every nChain patent or identify the owner of every underlying right. Teranode node license.
The uni-resolver-driver-did-bsv repository under Teranode Group carries a 2025 copyright notice naming Teranode Switzerland AG and an Apache 2.0 license. This is a record concerning that repository; it does not establish ownership of all former nChain software. DID resolver repository.
7. Patent licensing and enforcement
Disclosed licensing arrangements
| Date | Arrangement | Source and disclosed limits |
|---|---|---|
| Effective April 20, 2020; announced April 24 | TAAL entered a ten-year, non-exclusive patent license, with US$1 million in fees payable during the first year. | The announcement reports a signed commercial agreement, without describing an infringement dispute or settlement. nChain release. |
| September 2, 2020 | The TAAL agreement was amended to add transaction-processing patents. | TAAL’s information form identifies nChain Licensing AG as licensor and says ownership of the licensed portfolio remained with nChain. TAAL information form, dated March 1, 2021, printed page 7 and glossary. |
| November 30, 2022 | IPwe announced that ADVASA joined its Blockchain Smart Pool, with access to more than 1,250 blockchain patents and applications. ADVASA’s CEO specifically identified nChain’s patents. | A named participant’s access to a historical licensing program. The announcement does not establish the program’s September 2026 status. IPwe announcement. |
| August 2, 2023 | An IP licensing agreement for Ayre Ventures portfolio companies was included in the announced nChain investment package. | The announcement does not disclose covered patent numbers, exclusivity, sublicensing powers or complete territorial terms. Ayre Group announcement. |
The TAAL fee is a disclosed contractual obligation, rather than independent confirmation that the whole amount was received. TAAL’s information form also discloses Stefan Matthews’s roles at both TAAL and nChain. TAAL information form.
Public statements about licensing and unlicensed use
In a July 12, 2023 Forbes interview, nChain’s chief IP officer, Robert Alizon, described plans to police competitors operating without paying and said licensing expectations extended to users both within and outside BSV. Wright also described a broader plan to enforce IP rights. The report did not identify a patent infringement complaint or a served patent demand. Forbes interview.
In its February 6, 2024 announcement, nChain quoted Alizon discussing a forthcoming licensing model for developers across different blockchains and stating that participants should obtain licenses. That release identifies no accused implementation, asserted patent claim, infringement proceeding or enforcement deadline. The statement records the company’s position, rather than a judicial finding of infringement. nChain announcement.
Patent proceedings and the limits of the enforcement evidence
A USPTO notice records a request dated July 10, 2025 to re-examine US12,032,677, case 90/015,375, titled Agent-based Turing complete transactions integrating feedback within a blockchain system. It identifies nChain Licensing AG as owner of record. The request concerns patentability; it is not an infringement action brought by nChain. The notice alone does not establish the eventual result. USPTO notice, September 23, 2025.
The 2024 COPA identity judgment described in section 4 likewise is not a finding that an nChain patent was infringed.
As of this review, no verifiable patent infringement lawsuit, published patent demand identifying an accused party and patent, infringement judgment, injunction or disclosed infringement settlement involving the portfolio under investigation was identified. This is a finding about the public sources located, not an exhaustive worldwide docket search. Private demands and confidential negotiations remain outside the available evidence.
8. Unresolved ownership and scope
The reviewed records do not establish:
- A complete asset schedule or consideration for the January 2025 UK sale.
- A complete current shareholder chain for nChain Licensing AG or every Teranode entity.
- An itemized assignment of the wider nChain patent portfolio to a Teranode entity.
- The full extent of patent licenses, sublicenses, security interests or unrecorded assignments involving those entities.
- Wright’s complete retained personal patents, applications, royalties or contractual rights.
- A current worldwide portfolio count reconciled by invention family, jurisdiction, ownership and legal status.
At review, Companies House showed Neobridge Solutions Limited as active, with its next accounts covering the year ended December 31, 2025, due by September 30, 2026. Those accounts were not part of the reviewed evidence. Company record.
Source coverage
The sources include filed UK accounts and company records, Canadian and UK trademark records, official US patent grant publications, the High Court judgment, corporate announcements, software repositories and an authors’ research disclosure. Links are attached to the relevant entries throughout the page.
The seller’s note 28 appears on printed page 39, PDF page 42; the buyer’s notes 9–10 appear on printed page 7, PDF page 8. Both filings were checked in filed XHTML and rendered PDF form. PDF page references here count from the first page of the file.
Google Patents is used only for the supplementary records identified above. No complete worldwide patent assignment and status audit, private shareholder register or acquisition contract underlies this page. Historical grant entries, company announcements and trademark specifications are presented according to what each record establishes at its stated date.
