The U.K. Supreme Court has officially denied Craig Wright the permission to appeal a ruling in his case against Peter McCormack, as confirmed by a lawyer speaking to CoinDesk on Thursday.
Back in July, a panel of judges had issued a ruling that granted Wright only 1 GBP in compensation for a libel claim against bitcoin podcaster Peter McCormack. This claim was related to Wright’s assertion of being the Bitcoin inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Rupert Cowper-Coles, a partner at law firm RPC representing McCormack, expressed their satisfaction with the upheld judgment and the nominal damages award of 1 pound, which Wright had attempted to appeal twice without success.
Although CoinDesk reached out to Craig Wright’s lawyers at Shoosmiths, McCormack, and the Supreme Court for comment, there was no response prior to publication.
In addition to this legal setback, Wright is currently embroiled in another contentious legal battle against a group of crypto companies and several bitcoin developers. This group recently rejected an offer to settle a long-standing case alleging violation of Wright’s purported copyright to Bitcoin’s white paper, blockchain database, and file format, which they accessed for their work.
In response to the rejected settlement offer, the non-profit Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA) tweeted that they are taking a “hard pass” on the proposed settlement due to concerns about potential loopholes that could enable Wright to sue again. COPA represents the 13 Bitcoin Core developers and companies such as Coinbase and Block, who were originally named in Wright’s legal complaint from 2016. This latest update underscores the ongoing legal challenges facing Craig Wright within the crypto industry.
