Blockchain Technology in IPR- A Call for Innovation

Introduction 

The future starts with innovation and the protection of intellectual property fosters it. The idea if not protected cannot provide its full benefit, ultimately hampering the process of future development. In the Intellectual property regime, it is very important that the inventor has complete knowledge of the use of his work, but with the invention of a higher standard of digitalisation at such a great pace, the infringement of these intellectual property rights has increased. As intellectual property is as important as any physical property, fulfilling the objective of providing economic as well as moral benefit is needed. The concept of Blockchain technology has gained momentum in the past few years the reason being that, this technology provides a decentralised and more efficient way to deal with the work. With the use of this technology in the legal frame lawyers can simplify all the digital as well as non-digital work. Along with its use in contracts, management and sorting of documents, litigation and settlement, the technology can prove to be very beneficial if implemented along with the IPR arena. The article explains the working of blockchain technology and it further provides the need of using blockchain technology in the IPR regime.

 What is blockchain technology:

Blockchain is referred to as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), which makes the history of digital assets immutable and transparent through decentralised and cryptographic hashes. The blockchain consists of three important concepts: blocks, nodes, and miners. Each blockchain consists of multiple blocks, and each block has three basic elements. Data in blocks, a 32-bit integer called a nonce. The nonce is randomly generated when the block is created and a block header hash is generated. The hash is a 256-bit number associated with the nonce. It must start with a large number of zeros (that is, very small). When the first block of the chain is created, nonce will generate a cryptographic hash. The data in the block is considered signed and is permanently bound to the nonce and hash unless it degrades. Miner The miner creates new blocks in the chain through a process called mining. In the blockchain, each block has its own nonce and hash, but mining blocks is not easy, especially in large chains, as it also refers to the hash of the previous block in the chain. Miners use specialized software to solve the very complex math problem of finding a nonce that produces an accepted hash. With only 32  bits of nonce and 256 hashes, there are about 4 billion combinations of nonce hashes that need to be mined before the correct one can be found. When that happened, the miners should have found a "golden nonce" and their blocks would be added to the chain. If you make changes to a block early in the chain, you must save all subsequent blocks, not just the changed block. This makes it very difficult to operate blockchain technology. Think of it as "mathematical certainty", as finding a golden nonce requires tremendous time and computing power. If the block is successfully mined, the changes will be accepted by all nodes in the network and the miners will be rewarded.

Node

 One of the most important concepts of blockchain technology is decentralization. Computers and organizations cannot own chains under this system. Instead, it is a distributed ledger across the nodes connected to the chain. A node can be any type of electronic device that keeps a copy of the blockchain and makes the network work. Each node has its own copy of the blockchain, and the network must algorithmically approve each newly mined block in order to update, trust, and validate the chain. The transparency of the blockchain makes it easy to see and view all the actions in your ledger. Each participant receives a unique alphanumeric identification number that identifies their transaction. The combination of public information and a check-and-balance system helps the blockchain maintain integrity and build trust between users. In essence, blockchain can be thought of as the scalability of technology trust.

With increasing success of cryptocurrencies, the use of this technology is being implemented in more and more fields. It is found to have the potential for transforming the structure of e-payment, legal contracting, electronic media records, education credential and storing and sorting of information electronically. Hence blockchain can be seen as the need of future technology. Law being a 6 dynamic field has to cope with every scientific evolution, law not only deals with people but also people living in an environment. Where the environment is witnessing change, the law has to cope with those changes and grow accordingly. Hence the implementation of blockchain technology in the legal field becomes important. In recent years, there has been a great deal of interest. With an increasing number of venture capital investments and blockchain-related patent applications, minimal practical product testing to consider larger live implementations or investing heavily in development more and more companies are moving towards proprietary blockchain software. The key features of blockchain technology, such as the ability to record and store information in a distributed database, immutability, and the ability to eliminate intermediaries, make it suitable for industries such as financial and legal services (for example, multiple parties are the same) to 7 access the database to track information about the product.

Use of blockchain in IPR

 The blockchain works on a distributed ledger technology. Multiple separate computers (nodes) are used to record, share, and synchronise transactions in their individual electronic ledgers. Blockchain might be utilised as a platform for inventors to list their inventions/digital works in the form of ledgers with brief descriptions, thereby operating as an IP marketplace8. In addition, inventors’/ patent holders who are in search of potential licenses can be acquainted with the criteria of invention. 9 In the cases of invention it is comparatively an easier task to attain a patent by applying for it in the patent office but it becomes difficult in the case of creations under the copyright as the lack of official documentation hinders the use of ownership by the creator thus the Blockchain technology also acts to protect these IP rights. From the perspective of management, it will create a unified decentralised system and accelerate the distribution of these information in the form of ledger.

Copyright companies can assist users resolve all types of conflicts with the help of the blockchain, whether they wish to prove proof of authorship, communicate secret information with partners, transfer IP rights, or opt to launch a defensive publication. Rather than scheduling a meeting with a lawyer, they can give lawyers access to the original publication, which is stored on the blockchain. A lawyer can swiftly prove whether or not the organisation is misrepresenting in case of any copyright infringement due to block blockchain’s ability to save time-stamped and auditable documents.

Content providers who want to patent their work would have to sign up for a blockchain-based IP management platform and upload their intellectual property to the blockchain. There is no risk of data disclosure without the user's agreement because personal information will be maintained on the blockchain. After successfully registering on the site, the following step is to add an intellectual property for which a patent application is required. On the blockchain network, content creators can submit IP-related information.

A content creator can upload their intellectual property after entering the above information. Traceability and auditability are enabled by storing it on the blockchain, preventing data alteration or duplication. Once the intellectual property has been added to the blockchain, it may be made 11 visible to all other members of the network and cannot be changed.

With easy access to these intellectual properties, the duplication of unique ideas has become easier. These ideas are copied for monetary benefits without the owners' or the authors' knowledge, this unlawful infringement by a third party is essential to be taken care of in order to protect the IP rights of individuals. In addition, these intellectual properties form the crux of any business organisation hence, for the growth of the organisation it is important to protect them. Business companies especially the small-scale businesses have to be very prudent with respect to their goods and services along with their ideas and protection of them is needed on a greater scale. As these companies aim towards rapid growth, time management and organisation of work plays a very important role, inception of Blockchain technology in building those business and protection as well as working of IPR helps to boost the organisational operations.

Conclusion

With the increasing number of IPR registrations each year India and other countries have seen a surge of data inputs under the IPR sector. These data are important to be stored and verified when needed. Intellectual properties are unique in themselves for their very nature of being intangible. This not only makes it difficult to prove the rights but also the amount of data related to each property increases. In such cases, it is very important to have a managed and protected form of working by the organisations dealing with the intellectual property rights. Blockchain as a concept is simple and the implementation systematic. Merging the field of IPR along with the Blockchain technology can give rise to a better working of the IPR sector