Blockchain Patents

[AjithBtc]

What is a Patent ?

Licensing of an invention, that no one after him/her can't make/sell with different names.

What is a Blockchain Patent ?

With the evolution of blockchain technology more and more blockchains have got published as well as into development. These Blockchains will have different use cases as well as have difference in the way it's been developed.

Blockchain Patent List

Large scale firms keep on developing more and more advancement, and as a result once a product is ready it'll be applied for Patent. Once after that it'll be availed for usage, further no one can claim it. There is a big list of blockchain Patents thats been got by the leading companies of the world.

Year to year the patent application keeps increasing. This shows how the traditional market is getting into the blockchain development.

Alibaba leads the track filling more number of applications compared to the other firms in the race. Last year it was IBM that took the lead. In 2020 the applications have increased tremendously, and following is the growth with Alibaba. Bank of America stands in the second position this year, and weeks back BOM started to use bitcoin as cash on remittances.

Based on regional publication estimate the patent holdings are below

• IBM - 240 Patent
• Rechain - 279 Patent
• WeBank - 282 Patent
• Nchain - 402 Patent
• Tencent - 724 Patent
• Alibaba - 1505 Patent

With this I believe the future is much connected with blockchain technology, as each and everything will be developed over the blockchain technology same as that we have everything now associated with internet connectivity.

Source : Bitcoin.com

[joniboini]

Looks like Chinese companies in general is trying as hard as they can to register a lot of patents on the market. Quite understandable since they also have the BSN network, which is a big deal for any company who want to do a blockchain business over there.

But still, just how many patents will actually be useful and not some marketing gimmick?

[20kevin20]

Looks like Chinese companies in general is trying as hard as they can to register a lot of patents on the market. Quite understandable since they also have the BSN network, which is a big deal for any company who want to do a blockchain business over there.

But still, just how many patents will actually be useful and not some marketing gimmick?

China's quickly moving ahead of the game no matter what domain we're talking about. Might be an attempt to dominate these markets as well by patenting everything they can related to blockchain - don't you have to request approval and pay a percentage for using someone's patent? Alibaba and AliExpress have made a massive fortune, so I guess this is a well-thought strategy to earn even more profit.

[Ucy]

I wonder what will become of the so called Blockchain patents If Satoshi had patented Blockchain/Bitcoin?
Maybe in the future the cryptocurrency communities that are based on Bitcoin/satoshi principles will organize and defend their rights from people who will try to sue them for copying a technology that is meant to be free and open source.
Well, I think such patents will unlikely stop public projects/communities that are well decentralized. Decentralization is different ideal/concept from their world of centralization.

[HeRetiK]

I wonder what will become of the so called Blockchain patents If Satoshi had patented Blockchain/Bitcoin?

Those patents are probably very specific use cases that don't necessarily conflict with Bitcoin. You can't patent anything that provably existed before your request, so existing crypto projects should be safe.

The question is whether it will stiffle innovation further down the road. However since software patents are not universally accepted it will be close to impossible to take legal action against any decentralized international project.

[bitmover]

What is a Blockchain Patent ?

With the evolution of blockchain technology more and more blockchains have got published as well as into development. These Blockchains will have different use cases as well as have difference in the way it's been developed.

Probably 99% of those blockchains will die before their patents expire... so we will end up with a lot of patents and few projects.

However since software patents are not universally accepted it will be close to impossible to take legal action against any decentralized international project.

Exactly. What happens if bitcoin simple implement a patented idea? Nothing. There is no way to really take a legal action against bitcoin. Since there is no CEO (well, they can put craig in jail), no company, no ID, etc, you can't really stop people from using a code in the internet.

[webtricks]

What is a Blockchain Patent ?

With the evolution of blockchain technology more and more blockchains have got published as well as into development. These Blockchains will have different use cases as well as have difference in the way it's been developed.

Probably 99% of those blockchains will die before their patents expire... so we will end up with a lot of patents and few projects.

Actually no! The way these big houses/conglomerates use the term 'blockchain' is entirely different from what we guys do! I have a friend who work in one of the MNC in Acquisition & Mergers department. He told me that 'blockchain' is quite a buzzword in industry right now. The startups which market themselves as blockchain-based project easily get funding.

So I studied more about that and the results were really surprising! Most of the executives sitting in these departments don't have any clear idea about blockchain technology. As a result, low-key projects which simply molding centralized databases into somewhat decentralization are raising millions here in India.

Even state governments in India are spending millions on these blockchain startups to bring their public operations on-chain like selling contracts and licenses. However, I was really amused the way blockchain technology was wrongly explained on those government websites.

So on the whole, if you read news like this one then just assume that they are selling their services in new packet because blockchain is hot selling point in industry right now. It has little connection to the cryptocurrency world!

[avikz]

Looks like Chinese companies in general is trying as hard as they can to register a lot of patents on the market. Quite understandable since they also have the BSN network, which is a big deal for any company who want to do a blockchain business over there.

But still, just how many patents will actually be useful and not some marketing gimmick?

Jack Ma's Alibaba group is indeed leading the race of patents. However, we need to be very very careful about this because every company in China is very well connected with the government and Alibaba is a China grown conglomerate. I see it as a reflection of their expansionist mentality. They very well understand the benefits of blockchain and gearing up for the future.

[fiulpro]

We cannot call them Blockchain patents for sure. Since the real Invention was by Mr. Satoshi and all these companies are looking for a patents regarding the modified version of it.

China have recognized the future profit , which is in Blockchain and they are also training specialists in the same. Guys in the IT sector are learning about this as a part of their academic curriculum.

There are even different courses which is specifically for people interested in blockchain technology.

Plus I believe most of these patents are not going to be especially profitable for these companies since the normal blockchain is without any patent and can be used by anyone , plus these modifications are quite easy if you have what it takes , but then comes sustainability , will they be able to modify this technology into something even better ? This is a question that we might find out in the future.

But for now..let's not call them Blockchain patents .

[bitmover]

What is a Blockchain Patent ?

With the evolution of blockchain technology more and more blockchains have got published as well as into development. These Blockchains will have different use cases as well as have difference in the way it's been developed.

Probably 99% of those blockchains will die before their patents expire... so we will end up with a lot of patents and few projects.

Actually no! The way these big houses/conglomerates use the term 'blockchain' is entirely different from what we guys do! I have a friend who work in one of the MNC in Acquisition & Mergers department. He told me that 'blockchain' is quite a buzzword in industry right now. The startups which market themselves as blockchain-based project easily get funding.

take money due to fad and buzzwords,  taking advantage of executives who do not know what technology can or cannot do, does not mean much. These projects may be raising money now, but are they sustainable?

As soon as these executives see that the projects do not give any kind of the return they are expecting (actually, they might not even be expecting anything), they will cut funding and these start ups will disappear just as quickly as they emerged.

[HeRetiK]

take money due to fad and buzzwords,  taking advantage of executives who do not know what technology can or cannot do, does not mean much. These projects may be raising money now, but are they sustainable?

This assumes that these projects aim for anything other than raising money. If raising money is your only goal you don't need to be sustainable.

[Harlot]

But still, just how many patents will actually be useful and not some marketing gimmick?

For this one we can't be for sure and it will always depend. Patents are actually straightforward since aside from the requirement of your invention/technology of being unique and new our patent law also requires what you made to be useful for others so their invention might be useful for you but not for others but it will always depend on for who they made it for. The ongoing patent war we have just shows that it's always about who comes first and the volume of they are proposing since this will be the bulk of the money they will make in the future, it's really not up for us to the community to decide but the Patent agency judging if what they created is patentable or not.

[AmoreJaz]

What is a Blockchain Patent ?

With the evolution of blockchain technology more and more blockchains have got published as well as into development. These Blockchains will have different use cases as well as have difference in the way it's been developed.

Probably 99% of those blockchains will die before their patents expire... so we will end up with a lot of patents and few projects.

Actually no! The way these big houses/conglomerates use the term 'blockchain' is entirely different from what we guys do! I have a friend who work in one of the MNC in Acquisition & Mergers department. He told me that 'blockchain' is quite a buzzword in industry right now. The startups which market themselves as blockchain-based project easily get funding.

take money due to fad and buzzwords,  taking advantage of executives who do not know what technology can or cannot do, does not mean much. These projects may be raising money now, but are they sustainable?

As soon as these executives see that the projects do not give any kind of the return they are expecting (actually, they might not even be expecting anything), they will cut funding and these start ups will disappear just as quickly as they emerged.

the bottomline of most of these patents, is of course the potential money generated once utilised in the market. so once they are not seeing that it is not a hit in the market, they will just forget and move on to the next one. that's the reality of life!
 because some technologies are great but when it comes to actual application, they cant attract users or maybe it is not practical with the situation.

[bitsurfer2014]

I wonder what will become of the so called Blockchain patents If Satoshi had patented Blockchain/Bitcoin?

Those patents are probably very specific use cases that don't necessarily conflict with Bitcoin. You can't patent anything that provably existed before your request, so existing crypto projects should be safe.

The question is whether it will stiffle innovation further down the road. However since software patents are not universally accepted it will be close to impossible to take legal action against any decentralized international project.

Well it could be the case, but on the contrary, there is a big possibility that some of those patented blockchain technologies had been used before by previous crypto projects who either forgot to apply patent or didn't care to bother since those are most likely open-sourced.

I just hope no legal issues will arise in the future concerning these patented blockchain technologies that may hamper further development on this emerging field. Imho.

[sheenshane]

Just IMO, honestly, China doesn't care what and which technology are they getting patented.
All they have in mind is business. It's all about the business for them. Having patent rights has a very high advantage. You will always make a profit from it,
not just a profit but a very passive profit. Anyway, China is good at technology and they aren't trying hard for that. They can always do it for themselves. But still, business is business when it comes to this matter.  

Chinese is one of the most have a large business through blockchain and through this blog, Report: Blockchain Patents 'Skyrocket' in 2020, Alibaba Owns the Most Crypto Patents that usually have blockchain patent businesses.

[OcTradism]

Blockchain Patents, why do blockchain industry and blockchain companies need such patent?

Blockchain is decentralized as it is born for decentralization and it should be aimed at.

Projects are open-sourced and everyone can look at source code, fork from it. The initial project is a direct patent for it. I don't think third party patent is needed. Github is the space to store source code of projects and it provides patent for blockchain companies.

[NotATether]

Blockchain Patents, why do blockchain industry and blockchain companies need such patent?

Patents were invented as a way for individual inventors to capitalize off of the invention they made by paying them royalties whenever somebody else uses it. This was expanded to companies, and it's more likely you'll find a novel invention if you hire a bunch of software engineers as a single group at your company, and then as a consequence of their employment status, the company owns the patent.

In the event the inventors leave the company you will be left with a patent few people know how to implement, but companies eager to capitalize on it.

[bitsurfer2014]

Blockchain Patents, why do blockchain industry and blockchain companies need such patent?

Companies who have unique technological inventions in a blockchain implementation e.g. algorithms, codes, etc.. may need to patent those technologies as part of their intellectual property to prevent future legal issues that might occur as what happened with big software companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc.. who have been involved with lawsuits for issues concerning intellectual property rights.

Blockchain is decentralized as it is born for decentralization and it should be aimed at.

Not all blockchain implementations are decentralized as with the case in most crypto projects. There are also centralized blockchains (private) or could be a combination of both.

Projects are open-sourced and everyone can look at source code, fork from it. The initial project is a direct patent for it. I don't think third party patent is needed. Github is the space to store source code of projects and it provides patent for blockchain companies.

Not all projects are open-sourced, even so, there are still a bunch of crypto projects who keep some of their codes private and cannot be shared in public and are designed to be unforkable.

[Yogee]

......... Actually no! The way these big houses/conglomerates use the term 'blockchain' is entirely different from what we guys do! I have a friend who work in one of the MNC in Acquisition & Mergers department. He told me that 'blockchain' is quite a buzzword in industry right now. The startups which market themselves as blockchain-based project easily get funding.

So I studied more about that and the results were really surprising! Most of the executives sitting in these departments don't have any clear idea about blockchain technology. As a result, low-key projects which simply molding centralized databases into somewhat decentralization are raising millions here in India.

Even state governments in India are spending millions on these blockchain startups to bring their public operations on-chain like selling contracts and licenses. However, I was really amused the way blockchain technology was wrongly explained on those government websites.

So on the whole, if you read news like this one then just assume that they are selling their services in new packet because blockchain is hot selling point in industry right now. It has little connection to the cryptocurrency world!

Are there no seminars or webinars conducted there explaining blockchain to these executives?

If what you say is true that investments kept pouring in on start ups just because blockchain is attached to it, then I see no difference with the retail investors during ICOs, IEOs, and the latest Yield Farming trends.

What will they do if they hear the word CeFi?

Just IMO, honestly, China doesn't care what and which technology are they getting patented.
All they have in mind is business. It's all about the business for them. Having patent rights has a very high advantage. You will always make a profit from it,
not just a profit but a very passive profit. Anyway, China is good at technology and they aren't trying hard for that. They can always do it for themselves. But still, business is business when it comes to this matter. 

They actually care. They wouldn't have it patented if they don't. And yes, it's to protect their business interest.

Having patented a product doesn't ALWAYS translate to making a profit or a passive income from it. If nobody uses your patented product, you cannot charge anyone with fees, you won't get anything.

[HeRetiK]

Those patents are probably very specific use cases that don't necessarily conflict with Bitcoin. You can't patent anything that provably existed before your request, so existing crypto projects should be safe.

The question is whether it will stiffle innovation further down the road. However since software patents are not universally accepted it will be close to impossible to take legal action against any decentralized international project.

Well it could be the case, but on the contrary, there is a big possibility that some of those patented blockchain technologies had been used before by previous crypto projects who either forgot to apply patent or didn't care to bother since those are most likely open-sourced.

I just hope no legal issues will arise in the future concerning these patented blockchain technologies that may hamper further development on this emerging field. Imho.

If a technology has been provably used before any patent that follows it can be deemed null and void, regardless of whether the original creators patented it or not.

Once something is out there, it's out there. You can't patent something that is already commonly used.