Professor Charged To Court By Israeli University Because Of Zero-Knowledge Proofs Technology
A top university in Israel has charged one of its senior staff members to court for allegedly creating a zero-knowledge proof based on the intellectual property the professor created during his service in the institution, based on a recent report.
Technion Wants Half of the Company
Israel Institute of Technology which is also known as The Technion has filed a lawsuit in the Haifa District Court against Prof. Eli Ben-Sasson, a computer science lecturer. The tertiary institution claims that the Professor went against the set rules regarding the institution’s intellectual property laws. Ben-Sasson is also the co-founder and Chief Scientist at the blockchain tech company Starkware. Technion is presently demanding that the court transfer 50 percent of Ben-Sasson’s shares to it. The Technion is a research institute which was established in 1912.
The professor allegedly refused to inform the institution about the establishment of the firm and did not ask for the Technion’s permission to make public the intellectual property which belongs to the institution. The aforementioned claims were denied by Ben-Sasson’s defense team which went further stating that Starkware did not and does not intend to use Technion’s invention, therefore, the institution has no right to his shares. They have however reached a conclusion that Technion should be given a share of ownership in the company depending on whether or not they reach a compromise agreement soon.
Zero-Knowledge Proofs Technology Worth Millions
With STARK technology, Starkware will improve the scalability and privacy of blockchains thereby providing zero-knowledge cryptographic proofs which are “post-quantum secure” and do not require a trusted setup. Other co-founders of Starkware are Michael Riabzev (Ben-Sasson’s doctoral student at Technion), Prof. Alessandro Chiesa (UC Berkeley), and Uri Kolodny.
