This blog is written by Aishwarya Mudgadkar, a Fourth-year law student of MP Law College

Introduction

The stream of Blockchain technologies that has disrupted many industries including supply chains, healthcare and banking. But the potential impact on intellectual property (IP) rights is anything but small. With the ever-growing digital landscape, so too does a host of increasingly complex issues surrounding IP protection. It said the current models that are used to manage and govern intellectual property have failed when it comes to piracy, counterfeiting or managing digital ownership. In this blog, I will provide an insight into the pros and cons of blockchain technology as a potential game-changer in terms of protecting and governing intellectual property rights.

What Exactly Is Blockchain Technology?

If you remove the specific context of a cryptocurrency, blockchain is really just DLT (distributed ledger technology) that enables many as-permissioned participants to share and access one source of information without needing intermediaries. While traditional databases tend to hold information in a centralised location, blockchain distributes it across large networks of computers (nodes), ensuring everyone has the same access to the same information at once. By implementing our Ethereum app on this design, consumers receive trust, safety and transparency.

Major Characteristics of Blockchain Technology

1. Decentralization

Decentralization One of the key features provided by Blockchain technology A central body, such as a bank or the government track and analyze changes in an obligatory system. While blockchain, on the other hand allows establishing trust between parties by distributing control across a network of nodes. This is used to eliminate single points of failure, increasing the fraud resistance and attack tolerance by reducing cyber risk.

2. Immutability

Immutability: Information used to build a blockchain then it cannot be changed which is defining immutablity. After each of the transactions are added to the chain, a block is collected containing them all. This is necessary to preserve the integrity of the data since we cannot alter a block by changing all subsequent blocks.

3. Transparency

Blockchain Technology allows Another transparency by allowing all network audience to access the same ledger of information. A public ledger has an entry made for every transaction that everyone with blockchain access may examine. Users are more likely to trust one another because of this openness, which makes it simple to find and fix any inconsistencies.

How Are Blockchain Transactions Processed?

The blockchain tech can be broken down into a few critical sections to understand what the Blockchain Tech is:

1. When the User decides to execute a curve, The user is initiating one curve and their information with this transmission are transmitted in all network nodes.

2. When new transactions are broadcast to each node, the relevant nodes (hopefully all of them) validate it by those mechanisms you will learn from these descriptions. This process confirms the sufficient permissions of the user who initiates it and checks whether a transaction has more legal valuation.

3. The process of creating a block Once the annotation is verified it will join together with other annotations to be included in a one small box. Since each block only contains a few details about itself, it has to contain the cryptographic hash of its previous block in every new one. This makes this into 'chain' as one element represents chain and another is blocks being chained up together forming truthful links between them.

4. Updating the Blockchain Each node in network updates their ledger, and newer block is appended to previously existing chain thus becoming more transparent. #### 5. Result Every person in this network will witness a fresh blockchain and think that the transaction has happened.

How The Encounter Between IP And Blockchain Beef Up To Each Other?

1. Immutable Ownership & Transaction Records One of the earliest and most hyped promises by blockchain tech has been its supposedly “immutable” record keeping. Within the context of property rights, what this means is that a register or ledger containing transactions related to ownership on blockchain are recorded forever and can never be overwritten when it comes to specific land parcel. This feature is sets a record for ownership, which seems to be more important as if related with creative people or innovative ones; in order to address about the intellectual property right. It makes it much cheaper to recognize criminals because they will be instrumental in creating the control of ownership and making them available for conflict.

2. Licensing and Royalties Running on top of the blockchain technology, smart contract can act as an intermediary between rights holder, with which it has a licensing arrangement (typically) or enforces obligations regarding royalties. Smart Contract, that would allow to issuing licenses and payments related to intellectual property easier thus they could get paid fairly for their work. transmission type. Stop relying on intermediaries to avoid fraud & disputes, along with minimizing costs and time in managing assets.

3. Blockchain technology can help streamline the buying, selling and licensing of intellectual property especially in business contexts involving IP marketplaces. The whole concept behind NFTs is marking your work as IP, to endorse the artists in easily transfer their intellectuality properties and better ways to prove they are indeed owners of some unique kind of physical (or non-physical) artwork. They own their IP. For instance, artists can sell their digital works as NFTs which helps collectors buy rare items that are provably-unique.

4. Minimized Management: Intellectual Property can be a hard thing to keep track of. A centralized intellectual property management and monitoring platform powered by streamlining of blockchain technology would be able to increase the effectiveness during this process. This includes violations of license, how much it's being used for and watching licensing agreements

Challenges and Considerations

There are many potential applications of blockchain technology in the field of intellectual property law, but several problems will need to be addressed.

1. Strategic Framework and Legal Domestication

Many Voices Legal Status of IP Management Systems Based on Blockchain Technology Before blockchain can be fully accommodated to the IP environment, legal frameworks have to change in a manner so as duly recognize and support records from decentralized technologies like we saw for bold signifies, smart contracts which again: are just mentioned that they exist or will come into existence.

2. Issues with Interoperability

Today, different blockchains exist and operate separately from each other leading to issues of interoperability. For proper IP management system, effective communication and data sharing need to be in place among numerous blockchain networks involved.

Conclusion

The only thing that could stop this exponential growth of next-generation licensing is blockchain technology. Immutability, automated licensing mechanisms and smart markets are but a few ways in which the blockchain can enhance transparency, performance and security within an intellectual property environment. However, for these benefits to be derived in full swing legal frameworks need to evolve, interoperability challenges resolved and traditional stakeholders coaxed into taking the new world order head on.

When blockchain technology connects with intellectual property law, the future of creativity, innovation and ownership in a burgeoning digital world will become more widely impacted. For a world that is gradually more and more digital, SPRAOI will be critical to access the entire range of possibilities of this revolutionary technology in order for creators to get their fair share ending up with just rewards for their efforts.

References

1. Wissen Research. (n.d.). Blockchain Technology & Intellectual Property - Opportunities and Challenges. Retrieved from Wissen Research

2. Abou Naja. (n.d.). Blockchain Technology and Its Impact on Intellectual Property. Retrieved from ABOU NAJA

3. Bar & Bench. (n.d.). How blockchain technology is revolutionising the management and maintenance of intellectual property rights. Retrieved from Bar and Bench

4. Singh, B. P., & Tripathi, A. K. (2019). Blockchain Technology and Intellectual Property Rights. Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, 24(1-2), 41-44. Retrieved from NISCPR

5. SIMBA Chain. (n.d.). Blockchain for Protecting Intellectual Property. Retrieved from SIMBA Chain