How can blockchain can increase innovation?

在本文中，维多利亚·汤普森（Victoria Thompson）（伦敦区块链基金会的董事兼创始成员，巴克莱的创新法律负责人）分享了她对区块链如何增加创新和管理知识产权的见解。

区块链，比特币和DLT的含义远远超出了金融部门的加密货币和应用。One area where DLT can be used is in the innovation process to help bring huge benefits to how individuals and companies gain, protect and commercialise their intellectual capital. And more importantly, how governments and policymakers can leverage this technology to create a fairer and more innovative society.

当将区块链用于知识产权管理系统和流程领域时，它可以消除知识产权（IPR）保护和执法的障碍。知识产权被广泛称为商标，专利，版权，设计权，数据库权利和商业秘密。它们在全球数字经济中变得非常重要。尽管有价值，知识产权仍然是从商业和社会的角度看不到的，被低估，利用不足和非常误解。这种误解源于我们需要遵守的复杂和过时的过程，以便一旦创建了IPR，就可以归档，管理和保护它们。

DLT如何帮助？

So, how can DLT help remove this pain? Well, as an Intellectual Property (IP) and tech lawyer, I foresee a future world where individuals and CEOs will use simple automated Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) based platforms to capture, track and protect their most valuable resources and IP assets. Content producers, owners of IP, distribution partners and end consumers will all benefit from these new systems as they will finally transparently account for their role in the innovation lifecycle. Likewise, governments and IP authorities will be connected to these platforms and databases with real-time data feeds that will equally enable them to identify bad actors and enforce rights in the civil and criminal legal systems.

目前，IP管理软件系统主要是大型企业的领域，旨在允许法律部门及其研发团队之间的数据进行沟通和共享。尽管这些系统的成本为代价，但它们在很大程度上是集中式数据库，并且在很大程度上依赖人类数据输入来通知它们。此外，政府政策和知识产权当局正在使用过时的系统运行，这意味着他们无法轻易传播有关备案，赠款和反对派的实时数据。在IP诉讼中，由于缺乏数据透明度，收集证据很耗时，而且通常仍然非常密集。因此，知识产权执法行动（即因侵犯知识产权而将某人送往法庭）是大公司的领域，该领域具有深厚的资金来资助此类行动，使普通的发明者在司法系统之外。

基于DLT的系统具有四个杀手级功能，当应用于IP生命周期时，可以非常有效地解决一些关键问题：哈希，时间戳，资产的象征化和智能合约。这些功能使系统能够快速为任何基于IP值的生态系统创造坚实的基础。

In Estonia in 2015, the government introduced an Ethereum-based blockchain public notary system (a legal verification process), giving Estonian residents and companies the ability to notarise in a legally compliant way all kinds or certificates and documents, and paving the way for smart IP registries and digital IP certification [1].

Similarly, we’ve seen the emergence of new companies like Bernstein [2] and Valtitude [3], who offer web-based services that can be used by inventors to gain proof of authorship, securely share confidential information with third parties prior to IP filing, document the transfer of ownership, and gain freedom to operate through defensive publication.

I believe in the future blockchain-based systems will be expanded upon to enable the development of IP across all phases of the innovation lifecycle: tokens will be used to represent the IP asset; tracking services and contributions to IP development will be notarised and formalised via smart legal contracts; and platforms will be developed to manage the sale, licensing, distribution and exploitation of IP with plugins to smart digital registries acting as oracles in distributed networks.

DLT的未来

Furthermore, as technology standards and smart legal contract terms become standardised at each phase of the lifecycle, the cost of legal services will be reduced, removing long-standing barriers to IP enforcement actions.

任何基于DLT的系统的核心是能够在参与者网络上安全存储和交换价值的能力。鉴于IP资产对公司的价值越来越有价值，并且其成功是根据其在创新流程上获得投资回报率的能力来衡量的，我相信我们将目睹IP生命周期的大规模转型和自动化。

What’s more, DLT and tokenised IP will have a foundational role in that transformation journey. As a result of DLT-based IP management systems, IP assets of the future will be attributable upon creation, securely distributed (reducing fraud and counterfeiting), and consumed safely on a network that promotes IP rights transparency and operational efficiency that benefits all in the chain.

References

<sub>1. Parker L. Bitnation开始向爱沙尼亚电子居民提供区块链公共服务。2015年11月30日。勇敢的新硬币。可从：Bravenewcoin.com.
2. Bernstein. Individuals. Available from:Bernstein.io/Individuals.
3.阀。可从：valuechainplanning.com.</sub>