A 'blockchained' patent system

The patent system has not changed since the 15th century, when the first well-documented patent system was conceived in Venice. Now, imagine that we could reinvent the patent system from scratch, free of its legacies. How would we design such a system? EPFL researchers have sought to answer that question in a recently-published, thought-provoking article. In broad terms, the researchers suggest relying on private patent examiners, massively involving the crowd in patent examination with bounties paid through smart contracts, and adopting a dynamic fee setting. These changes would be enabled thanks to a fully DLT-based patent system, coordinated by the main patent offices. In this new world, patent offices would take new responsibilities, including managing the technical infrastructure and private examiners' training, and ensuring quality.

Abstract: 

Modern patent systems are slow, inefficient, expensive, and may result in outcomes that actively harm technological progress. This paper proposes a substantive re-think of these systems and lays a foundation upon which practical solutions can be built. Many solutions proposed in the past, such as prior-art bounties, outsourced examination, and dynamic fee setting, have gone unheeded due to the cost of administering them and the rigidity of the patent system. We explore how distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) enable these major changes by altering the way stakeholders are able to interact with the patent records system. We find that transitioning to a DLT-based patent records system can enable many previously suggested improvements to current patent systems in a flexible, scalable, and transparent manner. The case for such a transition is strengthened when jointly considering the complex but common roots of problems facing modern patent systems, rather than a balkanised set of technical solutions to address each issue independently. Noting that a DLT-based system is not a panacea, we also provide comment on the political, legal, and organisational challenges that must be overcome for such changes to be implemented at scale.

This work was funded by SNF grant No 10DL12_183088.