By taking advantage of blockchain technology, digital assets are broadly grouped into fungible and non-fungible tokens (NFT). NFT has widely attracted attention, and its protocols, standards, and applications are developing exponentially. It has been successfully applied to digital fantasy artwork, games, collectibles, etc. 

However, there is a lack of research in utilizing NFT in issues such as Intellectual Property (IP), even with the clear benefits that NFT-backed patents offer, there are a number of impediments to actually achieving such a system. For example, convincing patent owners to put current ownership records for their patents into NFTs poses an initial obstacle. 

A research team led by Prof. QU Qiang from Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. Seyed Mojtaba Hosseini Bamakan from Yazd University, Iran has proposed a layered conceptual NFT-based patent framework capable of guiding for businesses in taking advantage of NFTs in real-world problems such as grant patents, funding, biotechnology, and so forth. 

Their study was published in Nature Scientific Reports on Feb 9, 2022. 

"Although NFTs have had many applications so far, it rarely has been used to solve real-world problems," said Prof. QU, "in fact, an NFT is an exciting concept about IP."

Applying for a patent and trademark is a time-consuming and lengthy process, and it is also costly. That is, registering a copyright or trademark may take months, while securing a patent can take years. On the contrary, with the help of unique features of NFT technology, it is possible to accelerate this process with considerable confidence and assurance about protecting the ownership of an IP.  

NFTs can offer IP protection while an applicant waits for the government to grant his/her more formal protection. It is cause for excitement that people who believe NFTs and Blockchain would make buying and selling patents easier, offering new opportunities for companies, universities, and inventors to make money off their innovations. Patent holders will benefit from such innovation.  

"It would give them the ability to 'tokenize' their patents. Because every transaction would be logged on a blockchain, it will be much easier to trace patent ownership changes. "said Prof. Mojtaba.

The Proposed Architecture for Presenting NFT-Based Patent. (Image by SIAT)