Toronto, Canada, July 3, 2024, Chainwire
Digital Shovel Holdings Inc. sued RK Mission Critical LLC, RK Mechanical LLC and RK Industries LLC for patent infringement in May in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. “Rather than competing fairly,” the complaint reads, “Defendants are exploiting the innovative technologies that Digital Shovel has worked hard to develop and protect with patents.”
The cover above shows six original Digital Shovel products on the bottom, surrounded by RK Mission Critical products that feature patented Digital Shovel technology.
The dispute began in 2019 when Compute North approached Digital Shovel with a request to license Digital Shovel’s groundbreaking V-Shape technology, which enables significantly higher miner densities in cryptocurrency mining containers. Digital Shovel rejected the request, recognizing its innovation’s unique value proposition. RK Mission Critical began producing containers strikingly similar to Digital Shovel’s, to the point that Digital Shovel employees mistook them for their own, albeit with a different paint job.
The V-Shape technology, originally designed in 2018 and protected by three granted patents in 2022, 2023 and 2024, Nos. 11,910,557, 11,647,605 and 11,540,414, offers up to a 30% enhance in miner density, translating into significant operational and financial benefits for mining operations. Despite being aware of the pending patents as early as 2021, and even after additional patents were granted, RK Mission Critical continued to manufacture containers using Digital Shovel technology without authorization.
RK Mission Critical’s refusal to engage in meaningful settlement negotiations left Digital Shovel with no choice but to pursue legal action. Digital Shovel is seeking damages for its misuse of the patented V-Shape technology and an injunction prohibiting future sales of the infringing containers.
Digital Shovel estimates that RK Mission Critical has illegally sold hundreds of containers using Digital Shovel’s patented V-Shape technology. This blatant disregard for intellectual property rights not only undermines Digital Shovel’s difficult work and innovation, but also sets a threatening precedent for the industry.
Digital Shovel remains committed to protecting its intellectual property and will continue to pursue all available legal remedies to ensure RK Mission Critical is held accountable for its actions.
For more information or to schedule an interview with CEO Scot Johnson, users can contact Digital Shovel’s media relations department here.
About Digital Shovel
Digital Shovel helps companies scale their Crypto-Mining operations with turnkey mobile units. With low power costs and high security, we lend a hand companies with managed and unmanaged mining rig hosting. For more information, users can visit their website here.
contactEA to CEOBrianna TobiasDigital shovelB.Tobias@digitalshovel.com
