PARIS and ARMONK, N.Y., April 20,
2021 /PRNewswire/ -- IPwe today announced plans to
begin representing patents as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or digital
assets by working with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to create the
infrastructure for representing patents as NFTs and storing the
records on a blockchain network. The tokenization of intellectual
property (IP) will help position patents to be more easily sold,
traded, commercialized or otherwise monetized and bring new
liquidity to this asset class for investors and innovators.
Tokenization provides greater transparency and can also make
related transactions simpler and more cost-efficient. By
representing IP in this way, it can be licensed, sold and
commercialized. Organizations can also more easily view the IP as
an asset on their balance sheet. While NFTs have been used to
represent digital art, sports memorabilia and even iconic Tweets,
the early adoption of IP-based NFTs could usher in a transformation
of how IP is treated by inventors and
enterprises.
"The IPwe Platform is designed to transform the patent asset
class by increasing transparency and promoting engagement, which we
believe will encourage innovation," said IPwe CEO Erich Spangenberg. "The use of NFTs to represent
patents will help create completely new ways to interact with IP.
This is expected to benefit not only large enterprises that have
significant intellectual property, but it will bring new
opportunities to small and medium enterprises and even individual
IP owners. We believe it will usher in new offerings by financial
services firms and corporations to promote the evolution of a new
patent asset class."
These NFTs will be stored and shared on the IPwe Platform,
hosted on IBM Cloud and powered by IBM Blockchain.
The IPwe Platform also enables the Global Patent Marketplace,
which allows owners and other members of the patent ecosystem to
engage and transact, buy, license, finance, sell, research and
commercialize patents. IPwe, working with IBM, was the first
to create a patent marketplace on the blockchain. The introduction
of NFTs will only help accelerate the opportunity for IP, which has
been notoriously difficult to manage, value and transact, to be
treated as a liquid asset.
IPwe will soon begin trials of its NFTs on the company's Global
Patent Marketplace.
According to IPwe, many enterprises, governments, universities
and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) around the world are
already using their technology, including the IPwe Platform and the
IPwe Registry and Global Patent Marketplace. For SMEs in
particular, representing patents as digital assets is especially
powerful because it allows IP to be treated as collateral or
assurance of an organization's value, also allowing it to be more
easily leveraged when seeking funding. The IPwe Registry collects
current, active and historical patent records in a single freely
accessible registry with enhanced search enabled by IBM AI. A
broader ecosystem including financial institutions, insurers,
enterprises and other patent stakeholders are planned in the coming
months to support the use and exchange of tokenized patents using
these new technologies.
IBM and IPwe have worked together for the last three years
applying IBM's deep expertise in blockchain and artificial
intelligence to the IPwe Platform to help protect ownership
information; generate patent and portfolio analytics; facilitate
transactions; reporting and advancements of the next intelligent
generation of patent pooling - an agreement among multiple patent
holders to jointly license their IP.
"IBM has a long history of leadership in intellectual property
and the application of AI and blockchain in business. Our work with
IPwe is another example of our collaboration with leading
innovators to drive outcomes powered by blockchain capabilities and
digital assets that have the potential to transform entire
industries," said Jason Kelley,
General Manager, Global Strategic Partnerships, IBM Services. "As
businesses increasingly look to transform how they work with
intelligent workflows, blockchain technology is a critical tool to
increase transparency and reduce barriers."
To learn more about participating in the NFT trials on the IPwe
Platform anticipated to start in Q2, or joining the
ecosystem please visit here.
IPwe anticipates tokenized IP on the platform to be commercially
available in Q4 2021.
About IBM:
For more information on IBM Blockchain, please
visit https://www.ibm.com/blockchain
About IPwe:
IPwe is the world's first Global Patent Market that combines
the information and tools to identify, research, evaluate and
transact in patents. Large enterprise, SMEs, owners, users, those
looking to enhance their IP profiles and those with a legal,
technical or financial focus all benefit from using the IPwe
Platform. IPwe operates in more than 50 countries around the
world with offices in Asia,
Europe, and North and South America.
IBM Media Contact
Anthony Colucci
IBM Communications
anthony.colucci@ibm.com
IPwe Media Contact
Brian Berman
VP Strategic Partnerships
brian@ipwe.com
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SOURCE IBM