CALGARY, Alberta and LONDON, Feb. 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- INTERBIT LTD. (TSX Venture: IBIT) (the “Company”) announces it has now received a favourable patentability opinion for its “Chain Joining” Patent Cooperation Treaty application. Chain Joining refers to a method and system for facilitating data transfer between blockchains. The Company is now proceeding to file an expedited examination request in the United States for this Chain Joining application, similar to what it has already done for its Hypervisor, Hyperconvergence and Payload Layer applications.
The Company also announces that it has received a notice of allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office with respect to its “Chainception” patent application (application no. 16/568,948 entitled “Method and System for Hosting a New Blockchain Using an Existing Blockchain Node”) indicating that the examination and prosecution of this application has now closed. The Company’s next step in its goal to obtain patent rights in the United States in respect of this application and related claims is to file final paperwork and fees.
Strategic Review
In addition, following review by Xinova, LLC and their partners, the Company has now received independent feedback regarding the Company’s Interbit™ platform code and design. The conclusions received indicate that while the potential technological ambitions of the Interbit™ platform and its associated patent applications seek to address the strategic challenges that the blockchain industry continues to face (such as scalability), the design and architecture employed in building the Interbit™ platform to date has structural challenges. The reviews have identified that the platform would require significant additional architectural and development work before it would have the potential to generate any commercial returns. Furthermore, the reviewers noted that blockchain platform development may be best done in the open source arena as it enables rigorous and robust testing to be done by multiple independent parties.
The Board has therefore concluded that it is in the best interest of the Company at this time to focus on advancing its patent strategy and the Company is now working with Xinova, LLC to identify potential partners to work with or to potentially license its intellectual property to.
As previous announced, with the departure of several members of the management team and the closure of the UK offices, the Company has halted development of the Interbit™ platform and significantly decreased its operating costs.
The Company will continue with its ongoing strategic review and explore and evaluate opportunities to maximize shareholder value. There can be no assurance that this strategic review will result in the completion of any transaction or other alternative, or that a transaction, if pursued, will be completed. The Company has not set a timetable for completion of the review process, and it does not intend to comment further regarding the process unless a specific transaction or other alternative is approved by the Board of Directors or it is otherwise determined that further disclosure is appropriate or required by law.
ABOUT THE COMPANY
The Company owns proprietary technologies and is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange.
For further information please contact:
Brian Hinchcliffe, CEO
Phone: +1-914-815-2773
Email: investor@interbit.io
Website: www.interbit.io
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements, which include, the results of the strategic review being undertaken by the Company, the timing, development, launch and success of the Company’s technologies and products (including, without limitation, successful development and commercialization of the Interbit™ platform), timing of receipt of feedback in respect of patent application examinations, successful receipt of patents in connection with the Company’s patent applications, the ability to successfully license its intellectual property, the completion of the proposed private placement, the anticipated use of proceeds of such private placement, and other matters. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as “may”, “expect”, “estimate”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “believe” and “continue” or the negative thereof or similar variations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur. These assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the state of the economy in general and capital markets in particular, the development of competitive technologies, the marketplace acceptance of the Company’s technologies and products, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's annual Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2018 available at www.sedar.com, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additionally, the Company undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed above.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.