Abstract: This chapter critically investigates the application of blockchain technology for intellectual property management. To date, there have been relatively few critical discussions of the feasibility of utilising blockchain technology for this purpose, although much has been written, in media and industry sources, about the potential. Our aim, by contrast, is to examine possible limitations—and, subsequently, to suggest tentative solutions to the limitations we identify. Specifically, this chapter aims to examine the use of blockchain technology for intellectual property management from two perspectives: operation and implementation. We conclude that, while commentators often focus on technical characteristics of blockchain technology itself, it is the incentive design—which was fundamental to the original Bitcoin proposal—that is also critical to truly decentralised, and disintermediated, intellectual property management.
Tag: intellectual property
“ブロックチェーンを用いた知的財産管理” は課題だらけ
- 分散台帳技術を使った知的財産管理には、真正性 (authenticity) と追跡可能性 (traceability)という2つの大きな課題が存在する。
- 頑健かつ改ざん困難な形で管理出来るのはあくまで「台帳内」に「登録後」のデータなので、台帳外に独立して価値が存在する知的財産の管理は難しい。
- この問題への対処は、知的財産が持つ価値を台帳内部へ移転させるか (内部化) 別のインセンティブ設計を考えるか (外部化) の2種類だろう。
Ito (2017) “A Commons-Based Intellectual Property Management Incentivised by Peer-Review and Reward Tokens”
Abstract: This paper aims to propose an intellectual property management which can sufficiently incentivise to innovation without providing exclusive rights for creators. Specifically, our model applies citation network and rewarding structure employed in cryptocurrencies, and instead of appropriability mechanisms, creators in the model are compensated by the delegation of subsequent review. This system can improve the social welfare on existing systems by free and open access and less management cost as decentralized autonomous organization.
*This paper is now under the review.*