Blockchain Helps in the Voting System as USPS Files a Patent
The USPS, or the United States Postal Service, filed a patent for a mail-in voting system. This will use a blockchain and other technologies for verification. Darren Soto, a U.S. Representative for Florida’s 9th district, expressed his excitement regarding this prospective development.
He said, “I think it’s a great idea.”
Soto talked about how excited he is that the post office is working on the issue. It came as a surprise to the congress. It highlighted the necessity of patent filing in line with governmental technological advancements.
Soon, mail-in voting might quell the social distancing concerns for voters during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Soto explained that the USPS’s blockchain patent is timely. However, he is unsure if it will come into play in time for the 2020 presidential election. He stated, “Certainly, I could see it being utilized very soon, over the next couple of election cycles.”
Furthermore, the blockchain mail-in voting system would ask for a collaboration between the USPS and other governing entities overseeing the election activities. Soto thinks that the change would start slowly. They would apply the new system to locations where digital voting is already active. This could be, for example, email voting by U.S. military participants located in other countries.
Soto also mentioned that the USPS and its technology would send out QR codes and store digital IDs and votes on the blockchain. They could separate IDs from votes to preserve anonymity.
Then, he inferred that the system could let voters print out the proof of their completed votes, according to the equipment used to cast their ballots (computers, etc.).
Telegram Drops Lawsuit
Meanwhile, Telegram Messenger Inc has voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit against Lantah LLC for the use of the ‘GRAM’ trademark in its cryptocurrency token with the same name.
Charles Breyer, a U.S. district judge, ruled that Telegram needs to pay reasonable attorney fees to Lantah for defending the lawsuit in 2018. While Lantah has not given any records documenting its legal costs, the parties need to negotiate a fair sum before reconvening with the court.
The judge dropped the suit without prejudice to refiling. As a result, this allowed Telegram to make claims over the GRAM trademark in the future. It also rejected Lantah’s request for dismissal with prejudice.
In addition to that, Telegram dropped the lawsuit. This is after it left its Telegram Open Network project in May and settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in June.
As Telegram revealed its plans to fund a blockchain network launch through the sale of GRAM tokens in late-December 2017, the Florida-based Lantah had established itself in June 2017. After that, it claimed to have already planned to release a cryptocurrency named GRAM before Telegram.
Even though Lantah submitted an application for the GRAM trademark by 2018, Telegram took legal action against the firm in May 2018 after raising $1.7 billion through a three-month offering of GRAM tokens.
In June 2018, Lantah filed counterclaims asserting that it had priority over the trademark. But still, the court would grant Telegram’s request for a preliminary injunction barring Lantah from using the trademark. This highlights that Telegram had started using the trademark within a commercial context before Lantah.
