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Quantum Blockchain Technologies PLC on Wednesday said it has received a final rejection from the US Patent & Trademark Office on its ASIC Ultra Boost patent application, but plans to submit a formal response to further its patent claim. Final rejections issued by the USPTO, however, are not prejudicial to filing amendments and responding to the rejections. As such, rejections frequently see patents prosecution and may be overcome. The London-based blockchain sector-focused investor said the patent examiner raised an objection based on prior documents, including a thesis by ASIC Ultra Boost’s inventor Rahul Naik, and a paper by Nicolas Courtois, Naik’s thesis supervisor at University College London. Quantum Blockchain said the patent application explicitly references Naik’s prior work, and understands that the Patent Office’s concerns relate primarily to the breadth of the patent application‘s claims, rather than a lack of novelty of the underlying technology. Quantum Blockchain therefore believes there is still a viable pathway forward for the patent application, although the claim scope will need refinement. Shares in Quantum Blockchain were up 5.3% to 0.50 pence each on Wednesday afternoon in London. ASIC Ultra Boost, the company said in its patent application, is a method of performing cryptographic hashing when mining for Bitcoin that reduces the number of calculations which the message scheduler needs to perform. A message scheduler in cryptographic hashing divides the message in parts, so that the final message cannot be calculated until all partial messages have been sent through the network. The Bitcoin blockchain uses this system to calculate proof of work, which is needed to verify transactions. It then rewards the miner who solved the hashing problem with a fraction of the cryptocurrency. The company said that preparations are underway to support an interview with the USPTO’s patent examiner scheduled on April 20, ahead of the June 19 deadline to formally respond to the final rejection. Quantum Blockchain said that it is working closely with its patent attorneys to formulate a response strategy which may include amended claims or further technical arguments. Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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