Are blockchain developers also developing a patent protection strategy? A look at patent filing activities in the area of blockchain

AREBLOCKCHAINDEVELOPERSALSODEVELOPINGAPATENTPROTECTION
STRATEGY?ALOOKATPATENTFILINGACTIVITIESINTHEAREAOF
BLOCKCHAIN

YUHENGTOMZHANG*
ROBIC,LLP
LAWYERS,PATENTANDTRADEMARKAGENTS

Inanearlierarticle(Blockchain.WhatisitandwhatareitsIPissues?),weprovidedan
introductiontoblockchaintechnologiesandexploredsomeoftheIPissuessurrounding
thisemergingfield.Notably,wewonderedifcompaniesworkingintheblockchain
technologieswouldlooktoprotecttheirinnovationsusingintellectualpropertyrights.
Whenwerecentlydidalittlediggingwithinthedatabasesofvariouspatentoffices,we
discoveredthatcompanieshaveindeedstartedstakingtheirclaiminthisfieldthroughthe
filingofpatentapplications.
Developingtheblockchainbackbone
Movingfromtheexistingofframeworkofcentralizedserversanddatabasestoa
blockchainframeworkwhereprocessingandstorageofdatawillbedistributedamongst
multiplecomputersandmultiplepartieswillrepresentasignificantchange,bothonthe
hardwareandsoftwarelevel.Whilethearchitectureofablockchainnetworkisalready
fairlymatureforvarioustypesofcryptocurrencies,theblockchainarchitecturesforother
applicationsarestillunderdevelopmentinmanycases.
Unsurprisingly,ourresearchshowedthatleadingfinancialinstitutionsareoneofthe
leadingpatentfilerscoveringblockchainarchitecture.Forexample,banksneedtotrack,
process,andstoreinformationforalargevolumeoffinancialtransactions.Carryingthis
outusingblockchaintechnologycanbedifferentfromthecurrentmethodsofdoingso.
Currently,BankofAmericaseemstobeleadingthewayintermsofthenumberpatent
applicationsfiled.InCanada,TDBankalsoseemstohaveinvestedheavilyinthisarea,
havingalsofiledanumberofpatentapplicationsintheU.S.andCanada.BothBankof
AmericaandTDBank’searliestpatentapplicationsintheblockchainwerefiledin2015,
demonstratingthatdevelopmenthasalreadybeingongoingforseveralyears.

©CIPS,2018.*YuhengTomZhangisalawyerandapatentagentforROBIC,LLP,afirmoflawyers,patentand
trademarkagents.

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Blockchainforspecificapplications
Inadditiontobuildingtheblockchainarchitecture,onealsoneedstoconsiderhowtomake
useofthatarchitecturetoprocessandstoreinformationforspecificreal-world
applications.
Amodularblockchainarchitectureisaready-to-useblockchainthatpermitsdevelopersto
applyblockchainsolutionsforvariousspecificusecaseswithoutalsobeingconcerned
aboutactuallybuildingthefoundationsofablockchainnetwork.Forexample,the
HyperledgerFabric1isoneofthemostwidelyusedmodularblockchainarchitectureand
istheproductofaconsortiumoforganizations,havinginitiallybeencontributedbyDigital
AssetandIBM.
Ready-to-useblockchainnetworksallowsstart-ups,smallercompaniesorcompaniesthat
areotherwisenottechnology-focused,tobuildblockchainsolutionsforspecification
applications.Forexample,oursearchshowedpatentapplicationspublishedthisdirected
towardsthefollowingsolutions:
•Blockchain-basedvehiclerecordsthatstorehistoricalinformationaboutvehicles,
suchascollisioninformation,financinginformation,transferofownership
information,etc.;2
•Biologicalsamplesusedinmedicaltreatmentscanbeelectronicallytracked
throughaworkflowbasedonobservedpropertiesofthebiologicalsampleby
generatingablockchainofsamplestates,3
•Usingablockchaintotrackandidentifysegmentsofanoriginalvideooraudio
streamthatfindtheirwayintoaneditedstream.Thismaybeusefultoidentify
authenticvideosfromalteredones,forexample,todetectfakenews.4
Don’tforgetcryptocurrencies
Theriseininterestincryptocurrencyandthecorrespondingriseinthevalueofthese
variousdigitalcurrencieshasbeenhardtoignorein2017andearly2018.Ourresearch
showedthatthemajorpaymentservicesareoneoftheplayerswhohavelookedtoprotect
theirinnovationsinthecryptocurrencyspace.Mastercard,Visa,andPaypalhavealltaken
aninterestintheblockchainspaceandhavefiledpatentapplicationsattheU.S.Patent
Office.UnionMobilePayandChinaUnionPay,whicharebothverypopularChinese
1HyperledgerFabric,www.hyperledger.org/projects/fabric2U.S.publicationno.US20180018723,entitled“Distributedledgerplatformforvehiclerecords”,priority
date:2016-07-183PCTpublicationno.WO2018057520,entitled“Sampletrackingviasampletrackingchains,systemsand
methods”,prioritydate:2016-09-204U.S.patentno.9,870,508,entitled“Securelyauthenticatingarecordingfilefrominitialcollectionthrough
post-productionanddistribution”,prioritydate:2017-06-01.

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paymentservices,alsofeatureprominentlywithmultiplefilingsattheChinesePatent
Office.
However,muchlikeotherfinancialinstitutions,thesecompanieshavelookedatfuture
systemsthatextendbeyondthecurrentversionsofcryptocurrencies.Forexample,US
oneofVisa’spatentapplicationsdescribesamethodformanagingloyaltypointsfrom
multipleloyaltyprogramsusingacryptocurrency-likescheme.5
Keepinmindthatpatentapplicationsaretypicallynotpublisheduntilabout18months
aftertheirprioritydate.Thismeansthatweareonlynowseeingpatentapplicationsthat
werefiledinmid2016.Giventhefastpaceatwhichblockchaintechnologieshave
developed,onecanexpectanevenlargernumberofpatentapplicationswillhavebeen
filedsincethen.
Patentabilityofblockchaintechnologies
Ablockchain-basedinventionneedstomeetthetraditionalcriteriaofnovelty,non-
obviousness,utilityandpatent-eligiblesubject-matterinordertobepatented.
Noveltyandinventivenesscanresideinaspectsofanewblockchainarchitectureorinthe
noveluseofblockchaintechnologyforaspecificuse.Giventheriseininterestinthisfield,
applicantsshouldconsiderconductingapatentabilitysearchattheappropriatetimeto
determinewhethertheirinventionmeetthecriteriaofnoveltyandnon-obviousness.
Applicantsshouldalsobeawareofthepatent-eligiblesubject-matterissue.6Inventions
relatedtoaspectsofablockchainarchitecturewillgenerallyfallwithinoneofthe
categoriesbecauseitwillbepossibletoshowanimprovementormodificationtocomputer
technology.Forapplication-specificinnovationsbasedona“generic”blockchain,
applicantsshouldbecarefulthattheuseoftheblockchainisnotamereafterthought
withintheinvention.
Ultimately,eachblock-chainbasedinventionshouldbeevaluatedonacasebycasebasis
todeterminewhetherthesecriteriaforpatentabilityarelikelytobemet.
5U.S.publicationno.US20170161734,entitled“Methodsandsystemsofusingacryptocurrencysystem
tomanagepaymentsandpaymentalternatives.”6i.e.whethertheinventionfallswithinoneofthecategoriesofpatentableinventions