How Blockchain Technology Can Help Remedy Various Intellectual Property Dilemmas

Have you ever experienced writing, designing, or creating any type of work out of your own intellect? Have you ever thought about protecting it with intellectual property (IP) rights? Maybe you could try discussing such matters with an experienced trademark lawyer. Although, you see, implementing IP law on your work doesn’t necessarily mean it can’t be stolen.

While copyright, trademark, or patent law can protect your craft, it doesn’t really guarantee you a tangible registration system to prove your ownership over a particular work. So much so, when you find out that your work has been infringed, what proof of claim do you have to verify that you own a specific writeup, design, tagline, or logo?

Luckily, blockchains are starting to pave the way for creatives who wish to come up with effective ways on how to protect their IP rights, and at the same time have proof of ownership over these intellectual properties.

Pic: Elements Evanto 
Before grasping the essence of how blockchain technology can help remedy various intellectual property dilemmas, it’s important that you first know what a blockchain is. From here, you can then distinguish the different advantages of blockchain towards rising issues and challenges in regards to intellectual property.

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain actually comes from two words, which are block and chain. “Block” refers to relevant digital information or data while “chain” relates to that of a public database. Aside from this, blocks in a blockchain can actually be broken down into three parts:

  1. It stores information about past operations and all its details.
  2. It stores information about the cause of action [of any person or individual].
  3. It stores information about how its identity differs from other blocks, data, or transactions.

To put it simply, once a block stores new transactions, information, or data, it automatically adds up to a blockchain.

How Do Blockchains Work?

Now that you’ve identified what a blockchain is, it’s time to go further into detail and learn more about how blockchains work. Just like any other system or operation, blockchains also undergo processes for it to actually run.

  1. First, there must be an actual transaction or operation. Blockchains can’t store data without an initial action.
  2. Once a transaction has been placed, it proceeds to the next step, which is verifying whether or not an operation really happened.
  3. After verification, this information is now stored in a block joined with many other blocks in one system.
  4. Finally, your transaction or operation is then given a [unique] code for easier identification amongst all the other blocks of information.

Once all four steps are done, your blockchain is now available for public viewing along with all the other blockchains in the system. But don’t you worry, because although these blocks are made available to almost everyone on the Internet, personal or confidential information cannot be disclosed to the public.

Blockchains in the World of Intellectual Property

Now that you have an idea about blockchain and how it works, it’s time to distinguish how it can help today’s intellectual property dilemmas. As an example, one intellectual property dilemma or challenge could be your word against someone else, trying to prove that you actually own a specific work they stole from you. However, how do you prove that you really have copyright over an invention or idea without an actual document to support your claim?

Fortunately, this is where blockchains start doing its job. Since blockchains are known to store blocks of data from past transactions, more and more companies (especially law firms) nowadays are beginning to incorporate this for easier access to legal system transactions. For one, blockchains disguised as artificial intelligence (AI) can help you search the Internet and find out whether or not someone is using your IP unauthorized.

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As a result, you can start reaching out to this particular user about how they should be paying you for your hard work, or worse, face the consequences of copyright infringement. Also, blockchains keep track of time [of transaction] records, which cannot be altered by anyone. As a result, you can all the more prove your ownership over a specific work because of its first recorded date and time of creation and use.

On top of that, lots of blockchain systems with smart contracts are starting to emerge and enter the market these days. With that, creatives and content creators have higher chances to track down unapproved work duplication and generate higher profit.

Smart Contracts

One of blockchain’s advantages in IP registration is the ability of creators to manage sales from their IPs through smart contracts.

Smart contracts allow you and all other content creators and creatives to present terms and conditions regarding the use of any of your IPs. With that, you can directly engage and interact with people who wish to accredit or buy your work. As a result, you both get to protect your IP and generate sales out of your hard work at the same time.

Wrapping Up

In summary, blockchains are now an emerging trend when it comes to IP protection. As a matter of fact, law firms are slowly beginning to incorporate blockchain in their day-to-day business operations too! Today, content creators from all over the world can now utilize a new tool that can guarantee security and payment for their original content and media creations, all based off of hard work.

Before, the Internet seemed very intimidating that users think it’d be harder to enforce IP rights and claims with it. But in spite of that, blockchains have reintroduced its impacts in the digital world, and it probably might be the best and most convenient thing to ever happen to creatives and content creators.

| About the Guest Author:


William Ross may not be a lawyer by profession, but he’s one of the sharpest writers out there when it comes to intellectual property rights. Armed with considerable knowledge and gifted with impeccable writing skills, he can surely deliver engaging IP-related content.

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