Uniswap wins CPAMM patent suit vs Bancor, safeguarding open-source AMMs
Uniswap secured a U.S. federal court victory on Feb. 11, 2026, after entities linked to Bancor (Bprotocol Foundation and LocalCoin Ltd.) sued over alleged infringement of a 2017 patent covering the constant-product automated market maker (CPAMM) formula (x*y=k). Plaintiffs alleged Uniswap used the patented AMM method since 2018 and sought damages; Uniswap defended that its code is open-source and that the patent attempted to claim basic mathematical principles. Industry groups including the DeFi Education Fund and the Solana Institute backed Uniswap. The court found the infringement claims insufficient given the open nature and widespread adoption of the model. No appeal has been announced. Traders should note this ruling reduces legal risk for major AMM protocols, defends open-source DeFi primitives, and lowers the chance of patent-driven licensing costs or feature rollbacks across DEXs.
Bullish
This ruling removes a significant legal overhang for Uniswap and other AMM-based decentralized exchanges. By rejecting the patent claim on the CPAMM model, the court lowers the risk that DEXs could face retroactive licensing demands or injunctions that would impede trading, liquidity provision, or feature launches. In the short term, traders may see modest positive sentiment for UNI and AMM-related tokens as legal uncertainty eases; counterparties and liquidity providers are less likely to pull back or demand higher risk premiums. In the medium to long term, the decision reinforces open-source development and reduces the probability of patent-driven fragmentation or costly licensing across the DeFi stack, which supports broader adoption and composability—factors that are bullish for protocols reliant on AMMs. Parallel: past legal threats (e.g., IP claims against core infrastructure) have led to temporary volatility and reduced developer activity; removing such threats generally stabilizes market confidence. Caveats: market reaction will be tempered by macro crypto conditions, regulatory news, and protocol fundamentals; this is a legal win but not a product or revenue milestone.