A Critical Examination of the Application of Blockchain Technology to Intellectual Property Management

Kensuke Ito () and Marcus O’Dair ()
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Kensuke Ito: The University of Tokyo
Marcus O’Dair: Middlesex University

Chapter 12 in Business Transformation through Blockchain, 2019, pp 317-335 from Springer

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Blockchain; Intellectual property; Digital rights management; Copyright; Incentive design; Authenticity; Critique; Provenance; Disintermediation; Decentralisation; DApps; Distributed ledger technology; Music industry; Proof of existence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-319-99058-3_12

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-99058-3_12

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