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Blockchain Intellectual Property Council Endeavours to Oppose Patent Trolls

Approximately 70 members from businesses including Microsoft and IBM, financial institutions, technology firms, startups, universities as well as legal experts met not too long ago with the Chamber of Digital Commerce to hash out a approach moving forward to manage patent troubles like the huge surge in patent troll companies in the blockchain industry.

Chamber Founder and President Perianne Boring has recognised the urgency of handling patent trolls (companies that buy patents to never utilize them but to demand royalties and also sue for damages) but additionally focuses on the significance of establishing an industry body which is organized and ready to deal with almost all intellectual property difficulties as they come about in the foreseeable future and bringing the community together to promote cooperation plus a balanced ecosystem.

Boring claims that the council should incorporate a broad range of professionals and firms to be as beneficial as achievable.

Boring said:

"We are welcoming financial institutions, technological innovation organisations, business startups, academics, nonprofits among others focused on aiding blockchain adoption to participate in the Blockchain Intellectual Property Council. A multi-stakeholder approach could be necessary to addressing intellectual property within the blockchain ecosystem.

"Since formally commencing the Blockchain Intellectual Property Council on March 16, we have elevated from 40 to beyond 70 members."

Marc Kaufman, a patent attorney focusing on intellectual property matters, is among the three co-chairs of the council. Kaufman got into contact with the Chamber right after completing a report on patent trolls with Questel Inc. last year.

"I produced research over the last year of patents influencing the blockchain environment and observed the rate of patent filings was increasing in a noticeably rapid manner," claimed Kaufman in communication with Bitcoin Magazine. "History in alternative spaces, such as semiconductors, advertising and marketing and mobile devices, shows that this kind of activity precedes high patent risk in the space from patent trolls and rivals. I got in touch with Perianne Boring with this particular information and she agreed that the players should be wanting to handle the risk before it gets out of hand."

PricewaterhouseCoopers monitors U.S. patent troll cases and noted in 2014 that "the annual number of patent actions filed once more establishes a brand new record high, with near to 6,500 cases lodged in 2013. The quantity of cases has risen at an all round compound annual growth rate ( CAGR ) of 8% since 1991. Nonetheless, since 2009, the CAGR of the amount of patent cases filed has been 24 percent, or almost three times the growth across the whole period."

RPX Corporation, a company providing patent-litigation risk management, reports : "Current information reveals that patent trolls are flourishing - having added practically double the new defendants to infringement lawsuit campaigns within the first half of 2015 than during the second half of last year - regardless of courtroom judgements and reforms believed to be preventives. The rate of added defendants in the first half of 2015 was in excess of in almost any half-year period dating at least back through 2012."

Participants at the inaugural conference set focal points and outlined plausible approaches for best managing intellectual property complications on an ongoing, advantageous basis.

James Murdock, leading business official and general counsel at Blockstream , as well as Patrick Murck, special counsel at Cooley and even fellow at Berkman Klein Center at Harvard, have joined forces with Marc Kaufman to co-chair the council, which is secured by the Chamber of Digital Commerce.

"We have been inspired by the amount of involvement in the first assembly of the IP Council," Murdock informed Bitcoin Magazine . "It bodes well for future years final results from this significant effort and we look forward to working with the wide range of participants from all over the industry."

Kaufman divulged to the meeting that the probability of patent trolls interfering with innovation in the blockchain space is of primary concern and specified some of the possible tools that might be used to take care of this danger.

"The first gathering of the BIPC on March 30, 2017, was largely introductory and informational," Kaufman reported following the meeting. "Participants indicated precise concerns regarding intellectual property (for instance patent troll threat, as well as the need for interoperability) and the co-chairs discussed several of the instruments that may be used by the players to control this threat."

He included that individuals expressed a selected fascination with establishing a repository of patent information especially for the blockchain ecosystem.

"Creating an industry-led preventative patent method is extremely important to help safeguard innovation and generate broad adoption of blockchain-enabled technologies," Amber D. Scott, who works together firms on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and compliance strategies, told Bitcoin Magazine.

"This has the capacity to be a genuinely wonderful motivation, especially where it could support invention and partnership. In so many cases, a rejection to license technology or a willingness to do so only at excessively high charges has stifled invention.

"While a collaborative and open-source mindset existed ahead of Bitcoin, which was the point where a great number of discussions grew to become poignant and popular (or at least mainstream for techies). There exists a real paradigm shift and it's inspiring to see a team joining hand-in-hand to back up advancement. We all gain when we can focus on innovating in lieu of getting caught up in minor squabbles."

Joseph Weinberg, CEO of Paycase Financial along with a blockchain advisor in the Ontario Securities Commission , also welcomes this initiative in light of the ever-increasing queries about who owns blockchain applications.

"I think it's important for the Chamber to bring together international authorities for much more cross-jurisdictional alignment," claimed Weinberg. "We have a great set of models people orchestrated in Canada, nevertheless we simply cannot alone bring that to the doorsteps of many other nations - it is exactly what the Chamber is supplied to do, and is doing a superb job of: bringing worldwide alignment to regulators so fluid interaction, production education together with greater visibility [can happen] amongst industry and regulatory bodies."

Boring declared the kickoff gathering "was met with eager support from over 70 firms in participation. It's obvious the formation of a dedicated initiative focused on alleviating IP issues while promoting technical invention was long overdue."

The BIPC will get together once a month and will establish scaled-down working teams for several issues that are of main interest to the individuals.