Additional information
This section provides additional information for this survey. Please click on a specific topic below to receive more information.
General Definitions of DLT and IP
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) in general, and blockchain technology as its best-known form, have experienced a surge in interest and applications over the past years. Most people associate the technology with Bitcoin, the most widely known cryptocurrency. However, the potential benefits from blockchain solutions go far beyond cryptocurrencies as they can potentially increase efficiency, transparency, and security in many industries.
The intellectual property (IP) intensive industry can benefit from blockchain technology. This industry creates IP which can be defined as intangible assets that are owned by individuals, organizations, or companies. Such intangible assets include different asset classes which are protected under different rights. Commonly known classes are:
- inventions that can be protected through registered patents,
- creative work like music, films, books, art works and under certain conditions also databases, which are protected by copyrights,
- symbols, logos, brand names, etc. that can be registered as trademarks, and
shapes and forms i.e. the exterior of an object that can be registered as designs.
See www.ige.ch/en/intellectual-property for more information on IP and IP rights.
Blockchain Use Cases for IP
Several processes in IP value chains can potentially benefit from blockchain technology by making processes at different stages more secure, efficient, and transparent. More specifically, to give an example, blockchain technology can tackle challenges of actors in IP by facilitating the proof of ownership and by offering anti-counterfeiting solutions. These potential applications of blockchain technology for IP – of which some are already existing – are the topic of this study. We further refer to these applications of blockchain for IP as use cases.
When discussing these use cases, i.e. actors developing such use case, we distinguish between
- blockchain solutions designed for general purposes that can also be used within the IP value chain (e.g., time-stamping services) and
- blockchain solutions specifically designed for IP (e.g., blockchain registries for IP rights).
Figure 1, in the introduction section to the survey, shows the use cases of blockchain for IP along the phases of the IP value chain which the World Intellectual Property Organization described in their whitepaper on blockchain for IP (see www.wipo.int/cws/en/blockchain-and-ip.html).
These include:
- IP register (generation/protection)
- evidence of generation (generation)
- track and trace of source of origin (protection/commercialization)
- IP rights enforcement (protection)
- priority document exchange (protection)
- certification mark (protection)
- evidence of trademark use (protection)
- prosecution of plant variety protection application (protection)
- IP rights transfer (management)
- IP licenses (commercialization)