Protect Your Ideas Using Blockchain Technology: A Comprehensive Guide

Salomon Kisters

Mar 15, 2021

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In the current era, an idea is the most powerful and expensive entity. However, since the digital world is expanding, there are new threats to the ideas (or creative people in general) that need to be addressed adamantly.

Please be advised that whether we talk about the digital world or otherwise, the only recognized way of protecting an IP (intellectual property) is by getting a patent and trademark. However, the following problems are associated with them:

• A significant amount of time is wasted in filing and getting a patent. It does not only thwart the morale but also gives enough time to someone else for copying the idea and implementing it before you could even get the patent approved
• Generally, the patent documents are in a rather centralized environment which means that the documents are not “that” protected as one may assume.

A costly process

see more: Trademark fees USPTO

Moreover, if a patent or invention is not properly recorded, it can raise quite expensive and time-consuming disputes in the future. For instance, the disagreement as to who proposed the invention, who are the partners, authenticity of the patent, jurisdiction to which it belongs, and many other aspects as well.

Unfortunately, many countries do not even provide a comprehensive copyright law, let alone the protection of patents. As a result, whenever an author or publisher uploads his creative work on the internet, the end-users cannot determine the owner and what’s even worse is that nobody can ascertain the purpose for which the IP would be used by the viewers, which creates an environment of distrust.

Therefore, it is important to have robust blockchain-based solutions that allow the sheer protection of Intellectual Property and the rights associated with them.

Protecting your ideas

If you have produced any form of creative work before, you already know how dear it must be to you, and watching someone else claim its ownership and profits is simply absurd. To put it simply, when you invest your time and money in creating a masterpiece, why should someone else take the credit for it?

So, this is where OriginStamp comes into play and removes the hassle of getting the patents of your creative work timestamped so the entire world can determine their legitimacy. It would not only give you the ultimate peace of mind, but you will be protected from the legal aspect as well. In case there is an infringement, you can easily challenge it in court and get your case proved.

Since blockchain technology has become quite popular now and we have an array of platforms offering IP protection services, like OriginStamp, you do not even have to visit a legal office to get the patent.

All you need is to upload the file (e.g. document, image, video, or music) on our system and get it timestamped so the entire internet community can verify the provenance of your creative work and can also associate it with you.

Once the record is pushed on the ledger, no one can ever remove or edit it, not even the administrator or creator of the system. In order to offer enhanced feasibility, we also enable the integration of top cloud storage systems, such as GDrive and OneDrive so the inventors can simply import the files and get them attached with their respective names.

This solution is available for individuals and organizations alike so even if you are an independent inventor of a creative entity, you can use the platform without any issue.

Please be advised that the system is free for up to 5 timestamps.

See the step-by-step guide in our Docs for more details about the process of How to use the Timestamping API.

The pros of using blockchain for protecting your ideas

Thanks to the digital disruption, courts now accept blockchain-based proofs and hold very high regard for them. If there is any violation of your copyrights, you can simply challenge it in any court that accepts digital evidence and prove your explicit ownership of the data with timestamp and signatures. Since the courts also realize that these ledgers are immutable and decentralized, they can be certain that no tampering has been done over the years and none of the administrators or centralized bodies had control over the data.

Moreover, even if the court hires a 3rd party to verify the data, relatively less time would be required for doing so as the independent party would not waste time in verifying the legitimacy of the data source and they can just be focused on identifying the discrepancies.

One of the best perks of blockchain technology is that since it deals with digital entities, more feasible and easy partnerships can be formed for any scenario. The reason is that it allows fractional ownership of an asset. For instance, in the physical world, you can either own an entity fully or you cannot own it all. However, in the digital world, with the help of blockchain technology, any entity can be owned in a fractional amount as well. Apart from that, it can also seamlessly transfer ownership between network members. If we talk about it from the perspective of IP protection and asset transfer, if an IP was created, let’s say 5 years ago which can now be sold for $5 million, the process via blockchain technology can offer the following benefits:

• A considerably low transaction fee
• An immutable record of transactions
• Ownership transfer within seconds
• No paperwork
• Anonymity in front of the general public

Apart from the fact that ownerships can be changed easily and at a considerably lower fee, the evidence that it maintains automatically cannot be ignored at any point in the future. With the help of smart contracts , OriginStamp’s patent timestamping solution can be extended as well. For instance, whenever a patent owner decides to share or transfer the patent to another party, there can be a custom set of terms and conditions as well. Therefore, the other party must accept the terms before being awarded the rights of the patent. In some complex scenarios, smart contracts can also be designed in such a way that if the new owner of the patent violates any term of the contract, the ownership rights can be revoked and this entire activity will be recorded on the blockchain ledger so the auditors and regulators can look up for the data whenever required.

Another major advantage is related to the distribution of partnership stakes. Oftentimes, a patent is jointly owned by several people who make money from royalties and other aspects. In a decentralized ecosystem, like the one offered by blockchain technology, the smart contracts can automatically execute upon triggers and distribute the profits to all stakeholders in their desired preset currencies automatically. It does not only boost trust but allows faster settlements due to the elimination of intermediaries on both sides.

It is worth noticing that while blockchain technology is good for storing the records in a decentralized manner, smart contracts can keep the platform and network functioning at its best by enforcing the rights laid out by the network against each IP, as per the requirements of the owner. They can dictate their terms in a decentralized environment and ensure their fulfillment as well. Since they would be in a position to license the ideas or products directly to the end-users, the cost of middlemen and the probability of infringement can be eliminated as well.

Getting a patent and securing it with OriginStamp is just the beginning. In fact, the real work starts after that as people often need to share their ideas with coinventors, investors, and employees for sharing a variety of information and getting their inputs. Our solution can aid in this regard as well due to a permissionless blockchain network.

Conclusion

The generic nature of OriginStamp does not only entertain the mainstream protection of ideas (or more specifically, Intellectual Properties), but it also allows the creation of unique use cases . For instance, an entire company can be launched as an IP marketplace where people put up their IPs, find matches and then perform transactions online as well.

This is just the tip of the iceberg and provides a quick insight as to how extensive the platform could be, given its highly generic nature.

So, the extent and possibilities of IP rights implementation are huge and when it is particularly done on a blockchain ledger, it is termed as “smart IP rights”. Therefore, a government organization can also run its virtual IP offices and continue issuing the blockchain patents, thus providing the complete provenance of an idea or a brand. As a result, the entire lifecycle could be traced and remove the wastage of time in determining the point of originatio

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Please note that the Content may have been generated with the Help of AI. The editorial content of OriginStamp AG does not constitute a recommendation for investment or purchase advice. In principle, an investment can also lead to a total loss. Therefore, please seek advice before making an investment decision.