HomeBlockchainHow Blockchain Technology Can Be Used to Protect Intellectual Property

How Blockchain Technology Can Be Used to Protect Intellectual Property

Guest post by Paul Bates, tech editor at EssayTask and SwiftPapers. 

Blockchain has gained popularity over recent years because of its potential uses, including the possibility to be used to protect intellectual property. Among the many areas this technology can be applied to, there is the protection of intellectual property, which is of significant concern to companies and interested individuals.

Registry of Intellectual Property Rights

Registration of intellectual rights, storage of original works, and cataloguing are some of the uses of blockchain. “Copyright exists automatically by creating an original work, which means there is no adequate way for authors to list their work, unlike when they are using other registered trademarks which are recorded on various registries,” explains Frank Peters, technology blogger at Dissertation Writing Service and ConfidentWriters

It is becoming tough for authors to know who is using their work and also the third parties lack the idea on how to seek a license from the owner, which makes it impossible to earn adequately from their work. When blockchain registers work, it is impossible for other users to change it, since the transactions are immutable. This gives owners proof evidence of ownership.

Managing Intellectual Property Rights

Blockchain can manage digital rights and intellectual property transactions; this is possible as it can execute, monitor, and hold contractual codes. Information in this technology can establish and enforce intellectual property agreements and allow real-time transmission of payment to owners. The technology protects the data in a content form, for example, encoding a song in digital form. Kodak Company, for instance, proves the popularity of blockchain by recently launching blockchain-based image rights management policy. 

“Businesses can use blockchain to manage and improve their rights in daily governance and transaction dealing,” says Michael Colt, business writer at Popular Biographies and Paper Writers for Hire

An instance is making intellectual property audits simply if the organisation has legal rights to contact comprehensive, unchangeable, and time-stamped records of the property they generate together with all the external users. This provides protection against liability incurred due to infringement of rights because of inadequate governance or oversight and strengthens recognition of property created within the business. 

Time-stamped ledgers created by blockchain ledgers cannot be altered retroactively

This fact makes it easier for owners to claim rights of the intellectual property during instances of infringement. By using blockchain, creators have proof of where the work was created and then used hence making it an ideal solution, as there are no more doubts. Blockchain is capable of tracking subsequent use of the intellectual property which is very important as it solves issues of cheap and easy replication of intellectual property content.

Creating Ownership Evidence

Blockchain technology provides evidence to unregistered intellectual property such as copyright and unregistered design rights; this is because it shows proof of their use, status, conception and qualification requirements. Blockchain shows originality and the country which first marketed the design. The designer is required to upload the original work and details to this technology and it will create substantial evidence and time-stamped record to prove its originality. The evidence appears to be more helpful to the owner of the unregistered intellectual property under Berne terms which intellectual rights cannot register.

Intellectual Rights Enforcement and Anti-counterfeiting

A blockchain ledger is capable of showing the authorised licensee who is the owner and many other details which enables custom authorities, consumers and anyone involved in the supply chain do distinguish a valid product from fake and also know genuine creators of the product. This is possible since the technology records verifiable details of sources of raw materials, production process, and place of manufacturing. Blockchain is gaining popularity since it allows provenance authentication and provides reassurance for insurers, authorities, and consumers on product authenticity.

Blockchain has additional features such as scannable tags and tamper proof seals, which is a convincing case for distributed ledger reducing incidences of counterfeits. The owner informs involved authorities of the features that their products have and this makes it easy for border officials to check on counterfeit products. The technology also provides an opportunity to educate users on counterfeit risks and ability to tell whether the merchandise they purchase is original or not. Blockchain is usable with certification marks to show that a product meets established standards.

Legal Acceptance

Blockchain has received judicial recognition by many nations as per now; legislators in different countries are proposing several initiatives to acknowledge proofs of records based on provided ledger technologies. This shows that governments and individuals are interested in this technology as it has proven the ability to maintain the originality of property. Based on this, blockchain is coming up with new projects which can generate certificates with zero disclosure of data to any person, not even the creator of the technology. All information submitted will be encrypted locally before reaching the server, and the encryption key remains with the user only and never sent to the servers. For validation of a blockchain certificate, one has to provide the exact original document with changes. Otherwise, there is no validity of the certification.

Blockchain technology is an assurance of future greatness; this is vividly shown by its ability to manage digital rights, establish and enforce intellectual property agreements, protect the originality of a product, discourage counterfeits and transmit payments to the owners in real time. This is pure evidence that blockchain will surely protect intellectual property with no doubt.

Paul Bates
Paul Bates
Paul Bates is a tech editor at EssayTask and SwiftPapers. He is also contributing to a few international offline magazines and online publications.
RELATED ARTICLES

MOST POPULARS

GoldBrick