Last week, news broke that at least three major companies filed for blockchain-related patents: Bank of America sought to legally protect its blockchain-based system, allowing for external verification of data; Patent applications related to digital currency transfers, blockchain data storage; while payment company Mastercard's application mentions a public blockchain-based system for linking assets between blockchains and fiat accounts. method.

Blockchain technology is one of the most concerned topics in 2018. With the steady increase in the number of blockchain-related patents and the entry of major companies, blockchain-related patents may become a new battlefield.

Like any other patent, a blockchain patent is a set of exclusive rights issued by an official body (sovereign state or intergovernmental organization), in which the inventor or assignee discloses his invention to the public in exchange. For example, in the United States, patents are granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Although there is no "international patent", according to the "Patent Cooperation Treaty" signed by 152 countries (PCT), by filing one international patent application under the PCT, applicants can simultaneously obtain protection for their inventions in many countries.

as Bloomberg saysaccording to

according toUSPTO database, the first mention of blockchain and cryptocurrency-related patents appeared around 2012. In the U.S. alone, agencies have amassed at least 83 patent applications containing the words “cryptocurrency” and “blockchain” between 2012-2015.

with bitcoinBecome the most popular buzzword in the market, and this number is also rising. According to the British "Financial Times"(FT), in 2017, the United States submitted 97 blockchain patents, exceeding the sum of all previous years.Bloomberg Legal DataIt shows that the US Patent Office received about 700 blockchain-related applications between January 2011 and April 2018. It is worth noting that it takes approximately 18 months for the patent office to issue an application it receives.

Blockchain is already a part of many companiesThe most discussed technology of the moment, 2018 may be more productive in terms of blockchain patent filings. According to reports,The total number of blockchain-related patent applications next year “is expected to be around 1,245.”

However, the US is not the frontrunner in this field. In 2017, China filed 225 blockchain patents (Half of the 406 blockchain-related patent applications that year), which far outnumber the rest of the world.

Data Display,Most international blockchain patent filings go to EITC (nChain), Bank of America, Alibaba, Coinplug and IBM。

thinkthinkWright collected patents without actually using them, but instead demanded large sums of money from companies that might need similar technology in their work. As Marc Kaufman, co-chair of the Blockchain Intellectual Property Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Data Chamber, said,“His strategy and activities have the hallmarks of being a patent asserting entity, and I’m not aware of any products from his company.”

In fact, blockchain patents have become the new target of the giants.In December 2017, Erich Spangenberg, an entrepreneur who was scorned in Silicon Valley for challenging technology patents and turned a $1 million technology patent portfolio he bought in the 1990s into a $150 million company, created a company called IPwe. company, the company consists of 20 full-time employees and consultants.Its goal is to "apply blockchain, artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to improve patents".

James Bessen, an economist and executive director of the Technology and Policy Studies Program at Boston University School of Law, believes that "Spangenberg is doing a good job...you want to go into a new field like blockchain because there will not be many patents, and the original stuff is open source." of."

According to Bessen, the patent giants proved to be a legitimate threat to the software industry during its first boom, when a large number of "junk patents" were used for various digital payment methods. They have sparked lawsuits against numerous businesses that have adopted any form of e-commerce transactions, and the courts will side with the patent owners.

Bank of America, another top patent filer, also appears to be prioritizing the use of registered technologies over practical applications. In 2016, Catherine Bessant, chief operating and technology officer at Bank of America, stated,Having blockchain-related patents "preserves our position ... before we even know what the commercial applications might be."

It’s worth noting that Bank of America appears to be less bullish on cryptocurrencies. In May, the bank saidBitcoin 'disturbing', and revised up its decision to ban customers from buying cryptocurrencies.

By the end of 2017, the Patent Office had granted 265 bitcoin-related patents and 53 blockchain-related patents. The earliest blockchain patent was claimed in April 2015.

Obtaining a patent is a time-consuming process.Bloomberg BloombergCiting a similar time frame, it provides an example of a patent filed by Bank of America for a cryptographic conversion system applied to convert one virtual currency into another: it was filed in 2014, published in 2015, and finally awarded in 2017. However, blockchain patents are being recognized, at least to some extent — Bank of America, for example, reportedly currently holds at least two patents.

However, the outcome of blockchain patent applications is often unclear. While there is no information on the exact number of rejected applications, it is worth noting that in 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that software applications that deal with abstract and non-inventive ideas cannot be patented under current law, largely due to the aforementioned patent giants resulting in a fiasco. Since then, it has become much more complicated for software companies to pass qualification tests.

Additionally, the open-source model that was once central to the idea of ​​blockchain, which could prevent potential patent battles, has reportedly become less prominent in the industry:A 2017 collaborative study of open source blockchain work by Deloitte and GitHubshows that most such experiments fail. According to their report, more than 26,000 open source blockchain projects were launched on GitHub in 2016, but only 8% of these projects were still active in 2017. Another setback from the R3 consortium of open-source blockchain projects was the exit last year of big names like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.

Of course, not all of them are.(I am Mu Xinxin, a reporter from Odaily. I am exploring the real blockchain. Please add WeChat wsuixin12 for breaking news and communicating. Please note your name, unit, position and reason.)。

(I am Mu Xinxin, a reporter from Odaily. I am exploring the real blockchain. Please add WeChat wsuixin12 for breaking news and communicating. Please note your name, unit, position and reason.)