National Intellectual Property Administration: Plans to deploy blockchain patent formulation standards

In the field of blockchain technology, foreign countries continue to hoard patents, while domestic patent layout has not yet been carried out

Patents are essential for blockchain to be implemented

Compared with Bitcoin, which quickly attracted the attention of the financial industry 8 years ago and then gradually returned to silence, its underlying technology, blockchain technology, has maintained a global momentum of continuous heating up in recent years. Simply put, blockchain is a "bookkeeping" system that all people participate in. The system automatically records each new "transaction" within a certain period of time and stores the "transaction information" in blocks on the Internet. Blockchain technology can not only be used in Bitcoin, but also extend to finance, the Internet of Things, medical care, justice and other fields. Many industry insiders believe that it will bring about subversive Internet technology innovation.

Foreign companies continue to hoard relevant patents around blockchain technology, but domestic companies have not yet started patent layout. In order to better absorb advantageous resources, the Zhongguancun Blockchain Industry Alliance was established recently to promote technological innovation and exchanges. Experts said that at present, domestic blockchain technology is still in its infancy. Not only has a unified technical standard not yet been formed, but various application solutions are still being explored and tested. In the future development of the blockchain industry, domestic related companies need to further strengthen patent accumulation, carry out patent layout in a targeted manner, and promote the industrialization of technology.

Abroad: "Food and grass" are ready before the troops move

According to a report released by Banco Santander, if all banks in the world use blockchain technology by 2020, they will save about $20 billion per year. This data is enough to illustrate the tremendous changes and challenges that blockchain technology has brought to the traditional financial sector.

It is understood that based on the advantages of blockchain technology such as decentralization, convenience, high security and low cost, in addition to the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in the United States trying to use blockchain technology to process stock transactions in the private securities market, more than 20 large global financial institutions such as Citigroup, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and UBS Group have also begun to apply this technology and have begun to form a blockchain alliance.

Although various fields around the world, especially the financial field, have shown great expectations for blockchain technology, the application prospects and patent layout of this technology are still unclear. As the saying goes, "before the troops move, the food and grass must be prepared first." Since 2015, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America and others have submitted patent applications related to blockchain technology.

It is understood that Bank of America has submitted nearly 40 patent applications related to blockchain technology to the US Patent and Trademark Office, including "Digital Currency Risk Detection System" and "Digital Currency Suspicious User Alert System". Gong Ming, an industry insider who is committed to promoting the development of digital currency and blockchain industries, believes that Bank of America is trying to seize the initiative in the field of blockchain technology by continuously hoarding patents related to blockchain technology.

Domestic: Patent layout has not yet started

Compared with foreign financial institutions that have begun to submit a large number of patent applications, my country has not yet formed a patent boom around blockchain technology.

Cao Yizhou, an associate researcher at the Patent Retrieval and Consultation Center of the State Intellectual Property Office, searched Chinese patent documents with the keyword "blockchain technology" and found that as of February 2016, there were 16 related patent applications in my country's published patent applications, of which 2 were submitted by domestic applicants and 14 by foreign applicants. "After preliminary search, the earliest related patent application was an invention patent application submitted by NEC Corporation in my country in 2010, and its technical research focus was on devices for managing the value of electronic currency." Cao Yizhou further analyzed the content of the patent application and found that the research focus of domestic applicants was on the underlying design, while foreign technology research and development had applied blockchain in specific scenarios.

"Domestic related patent applications are concentrated in offline and online transactions, identity authentication, and the manufacture of electronic currency. At present, there are about dozens of domestic blockchain companies, mainly concentrated in financial fields such as payment, but most companies have not yet carried out patent layout." Liu Gang, director of Beijing Jihui Zhijia Intellectual Property Management Consulting Co., Ltd., said.

Zhang Sheng, associate professor at the Key Laboratory of Advanced Sensor Devices and Integrated Systems, Shenzhen Graduate School, Tsinghua University, has been paying attention to blockchain technology for many years. The research team he leads mainly conducts basic underlying design and exploratory research on applications in multiple fields around blockchain technology, and has submitted multiple patent applications for related technologies. Zhang Sheng believes that blockchain technology originates from the basic algorithms and network solutions in computer networks, so there will not be too many patent applications at the technical principle level. The innovation of this technology is mainly reflected in the application method, that is, the network and data service model born in the context of "Internet +" combined with traditional information technology.

"For example, if you want to use the related products of a foreign smart home cloud service operator in China, you need to transmit the switch command information of the home appliance to the cloud server located abroad, and then transmit it to the smart home at home through the cloud server." Zhang Sheng further explained that by applying blockchain-related technologies, the switch commands issued by Chinese consumers do not need to be transmitted back to the foreign cloud server, but can be directly connected to the smart home appliances. The technology of Zhang Sheng's team is to let the underlying nodes define the collaborative relationship at the communication layer, form a new "network ecosystem", and promote its application in various fields.

The future: deploying patents to set standards

At present, domestic blockchain technology is still in its infancy. Not only has a unified technical standard not yet been formed, but various application solutions are still being explored and tested, and the number of patent applications is small. In this regard, Gu Shan, a partner of Beijing Lvheng Liye Intellectual Property Agency, said that since the research and development of basic technologies is time-consuming and laborious, domestic companies should strengthen cooperation with colleges and universities. At the same time, domestic applicants should submit patent applications for blockchain technology in a hierarchical manner, focusing on the underlying technology, how to ensure timeliness and security in the process of information transmission, and the application layer of the technology to carry out patent layout.

Liu Gang believes that how to deal with the relationship between the open source community, industry standards and patent applications is also a question that blockchain-related companies need to think about. "Before any new technology enters the commercial field, it will go through multiple stages such as standard setting, testing, formal commercial use in a certain industry, and expansion to various fields. Relevant companies should actively participate in standard setting, plan intellectual property strategies in advance, and adopt various methods to protect innovative achievements." Liu Gang said.

An industry insider who wishes to remain anonymous pointed out the current problems facing my country's blockchain technology from a more macro perspective: "On the one hand, blockchain is not just a new technology, but a combination of many aspects such as business forms. Formulating and unifying various standards is the primary task; on the other hand, technological development is inseparable from patent protection, but blockchain technology, as an extension of Internet technology, reflects more innovation in business models. In this case, how to better carry out patent layout cannot be ignored."

It is understood that the recently established Zhongguancun Blockchain Industry Alliance is one of the solutions to the above problems. "The establishment of the Zhongguancun Blockchain Industry Alliance can better absorb the advantageous resources from enterprises, research institutions, and relevant government departments, and promote technological innovation and exchanges. At the same time, the alliance can actively formulate blockchain technology standards, realize the sharing of patents and other resources, and quickly 'land' the relevant technologies and apply them to relevant fields." said the industry insider.

What is blockchain technology?

Blockchain technology uses cryptographic methods to generate a series of data blocks. Each data block contains all network transaction information over a period of time. It is used to verify the authenticity of the information and generate the next data block.

As a decentralized way of managing network information, blockchain technology has four main characteristics: First, decentralization. The distributed recording and storage of blockchain databases are in stark contrast to the centralized recording and storage of traditional databases. Second, trustlessness. Blockchain uses mathematical methods, asymmetric encryption, and reliable databases to create credit, generate trust, and reach transaction consensus for nodes in the network through specific algorithms, ultimately achieving decentralization. Third, collective maintenance. Every block in the blockchain is maintained by all nodes in the entire system. Fourth, it is a reliable database. Each node in the system has a complete copy of the blockchain content. Unless more than half of the nodes in the entire system are controlled at the same time, the rewrite of a single node will be invalid.

American blockchain expert Melanie Swan divides the application of blockchain technology into three stages: in stage 1.0, blockchain technology is mainly used for programmable currencies represented by Bitcoin; in stage 2.0, programmable finance based on blockchain technology appears; in stage 3.0, blockchain technology will be expanded to fields such as law, Internet of Things, medical care and communications.