Crunchfish Digital Cash AB ("Crunchfish") has received a Decision to Grant from the European Patent Office (EPO) for its initial Digital Cash patent application. Europe is the second major jurisdiction to grant a patent for this innovation following the grant in the US earlier this year. The decision to grant the application will be published on 2025-06-18 with the European patent number 4097667. The patent is valid until January 2040, 20 years from the original filing date.
Crunchfish is pleased to announce that the European Patent Office (EPO) has decided to grant a European patent for the initial core offline patent application filed with priority from January 2020. The decision to grant the application will be published on 2025-06-18 with the European patent number 4097667. Crunchfish has previously announced the Notice of Allowance for this patent application.
This patent protects many fundamental aspects of offline payments using the Reserve, Pay, and Settle approach. The basic premise is that the transaction is digitally signed by the payer from a hardware-based or software-based secure element if there is sufficient balance available and that the transaction is then transferred offline to the payee. Both parties store the digital transaction, which is later sent to the backend when either party gets online access.
This patent application has previously been granted in the US, received a positive International Preliminary Report on Patentability and is also in the process of nationalizing the patent application in India and China.
"It is extremely pleasing that our initial fundamental Digital Cash patent application for offline payments has now also been granted in the Europe. This is strategically important as the patent application has an early priority date from January 2020, the focus on offline payment in Europe with the Digital Euro and other offline payment providers, and that it increases the chances of a grant also in India and China", says Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish.
A European patent application covers many countries in Europe. However, the patent that will be granted does not automatically enter into force in all these countries. To maintain this European patent, Crunchfish must request so-called unitary effect and/or validate the patent (convert the European patent into individual national patent rights) in one or more of the so-called "designated states". The deadline for requesting unitary effect is one month from the date the EPO publishes the decision to grant the application, i.e. 2025-07-18. The deadline for validation is three months from the date the EPO publishes the decision to grant the application, i.e. 2025-09-18.
In Europe, Crunchfish intends to request a European patent with unitary effect (Unitary Patent) that provides uniform patent protection in the 18 EU Member States participating in enhanced co-operation and having ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court as well as validating the patent in a few other countries not covered by Unitary Patent.
For more information, please contact:
Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish AB
+46 708 46 47 88
joachim.samuelsson@crunchfish.com
This information was provided by the above for publication on 23rd May 2025 at 16:50 CET.
Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB is the Certified Adviser. Email: ca@vhcorp.se. Telephone +46 40 200 250.
About Crunchfish - crunchfish.com
Crunchfish is a deep fintech company pioneering a Digital Cash solution that enhance resilience, flexibility, and scalability in payment ecosystems. The patented offline payment architecture supports both payment network providers and payment service providers in modern commercial payment systems and evolving CBDC initiatives. Headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, Crunchfish drives innovation to shape the future of payments.
