CN111553784A - Intellectual property pledge financing system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a decentralized and autonomous intellectual property pledge financing market. By using a blockchain network and complex algorithms, the platform will allow intellectual property holders to register and obtain funds based on the strength of their intellectual property assets. Importantly, the system can use historical data to provide sophisticated metrics for investors and business owners, and to reduce risks associated with such relationships.

Description

Intellectual property pledge financing system and method

Priority requirement

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application serial No. 62/804,127, filed on 11/2/2019, which is incorporated herein by reference.

Background

Experts indicate that originality and intellectual property have become the major source of wealth for the intellectual economy, now accounting for 80% of the value of the listed companies. However, due to the lack of a system to tie valuable intellectual property to financial investors, the use of these valuable assets is limited to only one prevention mechanism.

Interestingly, a barrier-free, efficient and viable system for intellectual property asset pledge financing does not yet exist. To be aware of the lack of such a system, it is necessary to know the current circumstances in which financing is being obtained. In particular, the current trend in business investment is centered on obtaining external funds based on business plans or product revenues. However, obtaining such funds is clearly difficult. In fact, a recent survey issued by the firm accountant office found that over 66% of over 1000 entrepreneurs found it difficult to obtain the funds needed for development.

At the most basic level, a growing business has two sources of funds: a lender who loans for a period of time and wishes to receive a return, and a investor who wishes to purchase corporate shares in exchange for long-term capital gain as your stock price rises. Often, the lender is not interested in being the vision of a great business. They are only interested in risk management and the ability of businesses to repay their loans paid.

Another problem facing businesses in acquiring funds and financing is the problem of uncertainty. A business is severely hampered by the lack of past records that potential lenders can use to analyze to determine whether to provide the small business with the funds needed for expansion. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to obtain credit as a small business. The fact is that most small enterprises are bankruptcy. The lender knows this. Thus, to successfully finance an enterprise for raising debts, a financial plan is first needed that will allow the debts to be paid. For this reason, debt is generally not the first external capital to enter the business.

To further complicate matters, banks and other financial institutions are not able to obtain useful information to enable them to understand the activities of potential corporate debtors. They therefore force businesses to provide detailed business plans, corporate inventory, board of directors, and manager's detailed experience, as well as show how they intend to provide a guarantee for prepaid money. This process rarely provides the appropriate expertise required to evaluate any intellectual property asset. As a result, many enterprises eventually become stranded. Dilemma is used to describe a situation where a bank is unwilling to add credit, and a small business is unwilling or unable to add a guarantee, without a corresponding increase in the guarantee (collateral) on the part of the small business. Some banks even require that the business owner's rights be increased before more credit lines are given. Thus, the business owner must have the property that the lender can use as a guarantee (the collateral for any loan). The most common assets are accounts receivable and inventory that are less than 90 days old. At the beginning, you may also have to provide personal guarantees. Furthermore, traditional lenders are limited by geographic area and are reluctant to consider strategic intellectual property mortgages. In addition, banks and other financial institutions tend to require small business owners to provide personal guarantees and set interest rates at levels above those charged to large corporations and well known companies.

It is particularly difficult for small companies to obtain mid-term loans because of the mismatch in the deadlines of assets and liabilities. Long term loans are more readily available than medium and short term loans. The reason is that long term loans are secured by mortgages of property. Unfortunately, few businesses are able to guarantee property without first obtaining a loan.

The equity investor is more difficult to handle on the part. Investors vary in form and size, and target different goals. The challenges facing entrepreneurs in improving equity are ascribed to the same root cause as the debt-failure to understand investor needs.

Angel investors are an example of those who are looking for businesses that can quickly obtain a positive cash flow. Venture investors are looking for enterprises that can develop quickly and become very large and valuable. Furthermore, it is difficult to find a richter willing to invest in a small company truthfully, when any one richter is likely to get a more attractive investment opportunity from a larger and more attractive company.

The stock market may not be confident of the small business' quote. Even with confidence, they tend to pay less attention to it, which will cause the company to issue more stocks (just raise a small amount of funds), further diluting the revenue of the small company.

Of course, all equity investors are looking for exit strategies. There must be a method of selling investment stocks at a higher price in the future. This is another source of conflict with the entrepreneur. If you intend to run your business on your rest, no attempt is made to raise external funds. After all, most business owners do not intend to sell their businesses.

Even those investors willing to invest in business face significant challenges. Essentially, those commercial investors are seeking valuable returns on their investments. However, evaluating enterprise assets is both difficult and expensive. Thus, investors often avoid risk programs without confirming business plans. In addition, they require strict adherence to time nodes and other standards that often prevent the enterprise itself.

While both investors and enterprises understand the importance of intellectual property rights to the success of the enterprise, the evaluation of these assets requires a large amount of historical data and unique expertise that is difficult to find. Furthermore, there is no way to withdraw funds from the risk item without creating significant interference that may affect the enterprise itself.

A small number of investors are also bound by the economic limitations of geographical constraints. Investments must take the form of certain legal currencies and sales must strictly comply with regulatory procedures that do not cover the needs of the enterprise or investor.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention relates to a platform that can evaluate and associate intellectual property owners with financing, which can address many of the issues surrounding acquiring financing.

Intellectual property pledge financing centers around the idea of using intellectual property assets as the basis for an enterprise to acquire investment. In particular, the decentralized evaluation approach may provide access to historical data, as well as risk metrics that allow investors to bid on assets. The object of the present invention is to create a new framework that will facilitate efficient financing with protected intellectual property as a pledge. This means that qualified investors from various industries will now be exposed to asset classes that were previously inaccessible. This will allow companies a new opportunity to obtain financing based on their significant investment in intellectual property and the strength of the patent portfolio. Today, a large portion of a company's balance sheet is an intangible asset.

Thus, introducing liquidity into intellectual property asset classes has incredible macro and micro benefits. In addition, the platform may provide investors with an opportunity to reach this non-relevant asset class, giving them the opportunity to obtain efficient private market secondary liquidity.

Some methods of attracting investors may include: providing a high yield; setting a specific time limit; a combination of secured patents that provide three times the normal range of potential additional credit increases; including identifying the proportion of the stock certificate; and allowing the lender to conduct transactions via the LC-based system.

By employing blockchains or decentralized ledgers, the present invention discloses a platform that can both evaluate patents and provide investors with access to the patents. The platform links people worldwide by using cryptocurrency and virtual certificates. The artificial intelligence component provides an evolving platform that collects, analyzes, calculates, and adapts to changing environments.

Other features and aspects of the disclosed technology will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the features in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology. The summary is not intended to limit the scope of any invention described herein, which is defined only by the claims appended hereto.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is an overview of the partner scenario of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an intelligent guaranty process for a patent asset that employs the present invention.

Detailed Description

Currently, the patent financial market is very mobile and relatively small in scale. One aspect is the "final borrower" that is focused on the "loan-to-own" transaction. Such "borrowers" typically fund at 300% effective interest rate, hoping that they can revoke the redemption of a pledge and be patented. Businesses with other options will only avoid such borrowers.

On the other hand, loaners who are large property owners, who group patent portfolios and many other properties as collateral. In such cases, little or no value is assigned to the patent, and it is simply a mere chance of chance to obtain a warranty benefit in the patent portfolio.

Financing transactions exist between these two modes, but they are either financing of relatively small size or are often associated with monetization and recognition activities, which is not a viable option for many patent owners.

By utilizing blockchain techniques, the present invention seeks to disclose a decentralization platform that provides a cost-effective platform for obtaining financing secured by intellectual property assets.

Blockchain technology (sometimes referred to simply as blockchain) has been developed in the past and has been used to implement some digital currencies. An exemplary implementation and corresponding blockchain technique is described in article by the inventor 2008 entitled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Nonetheless, in some embodiments discussed in this document, the blockchain may be privately hosted (e.g., where all member nodes are run and provided by the same entity or controlled group of entities). In some example embodiments, the blockchain may be a distributed blockchain (e.g., a blockchain provided by a bitcoin network). Thus, the term "blockchain" as used in this text is not limited to so-called blockchains for bitcoin cryptocurrency only.

A blockchain is a data structure that stores a list of transactions, which can be thought of as a distributed electronic ledger that records transactions between source identifiers and destination identifiers. Each transaction is "targeted" with a destination identifier associated with a public/private key pair. When a new transaction is created, output from other previous transactions targeting a "from" address (which may be multiple different addresses derived from the same private key) is used as input to the new transaction. The new transaction is then accompanied by a public key associated with the "target (to)" destination identifier. In other words, the output from the previous blockchain transaction is used as input to the new transaction, which is then signed using the public key associated with the destination address. The new blockchain transaction is then submitted to the blockchain. Once on the blockchain, a plurality of such transactions are bundled into a block, and the block is connected to the previous block in the "blockchain". The computer nodes of the distributed system then maintain a chain of blocks and verify each new block (and the transactions contained in the corresponding block). The techniques described herein utilize block chaining techniques to address one or more problems of traditional database systems.

Blockchain technology holds great promise in many industries and business cases, including patent asset classes. This is because the blockchain can be viewed as a kind of shared database whose contents are verified and approved by the network or by the independent participants. For new data to be added to the blockchain (as the owner of the newly issued patent), the independent verifiers must agree on their validity.

Because each new transaction set ("tile") is cryptographically linked to the previous tile, it is very difficult to modify the data stored in the chain of tiles, and any such modifications are easily detected. Thus, blockchains are widely considered immutable and thus can be a record of proof of ownership.

When conducting transactions in the blockchain platform, each user uses a public address (the address required by other participants in the network to send the transaction to the user) and the "private key" of the encrypted pairing. The private key is used to digitally sign the transaction, which is a form verification to ensure that a given user has actually generated the transaction.

Blockchains are a relatively new technology. The first "real" blockchain (bitcoin) conceived by the chinese wisdom was introduced in 2009. The Etherhouse blockchain was released in 2015. In addition to the distributed ledger function of the bitcoin blockchain, the ethernet blockchain also implements what are known as "smart contracts", which are programs stored in the ethernet blockchain that can autonomously carry out complex transactions¹。

Blockchain data transmission is currently considered one of the most secure techniques for digital asset transmission due to its distributed nature and the use of sophisticated encryption techniques. Thus, smart contracts offer a potential solution for patent transaction management by introducing a generic distributed ledger that does not require trust of a single third party.

The bitcoin blockchain is limited to simple information and scripts such as transaction details, and the minimum number of signing parties is used as a condition for transaction. Thus, it is believed that virtual currency would actually change the trade completely and must also provide built-in means to facilitate complex contract and currency transactions.

The Etherhouse project is based on bitcoin. Etherhouses allow not only the decentralized storage of data in a blockchain, but also the storage of program code in a blockchain, which is run simultaneously by any number of network members. By predicting the release of funds based on verifiable events, the ether house implements intelligent contract functionality.

Basically, a network member uploads to the blockchain a computer program written in one of several allowed languages. The network member may then act as a condition for the issuance of a certain amount of ETH (Etherhouse base currency) with the end of the program. The various network members then run the program simultaneously and agree on the output that is produced.

The scripting languages in EtherFang or IBM Hyperlegger are graphically complete in that they can implement any logic rules and initiate any available computations.

This feature allows any member to issue and trade custom virtual currency at the Etherhouse. For clarity, a custom virtual currency issued based on another virtual currency is referred to as a pass. The general evidence can have multiple uses. One of the certificates represents currency and the other represents club membership points or frequent flyer points. The pass-certificate can be transacted into ETH or any other commodity and pass-certificate through an EtherFang or IBMHyperledger network.

Before EtherFang or IBM Hyperridge, one needed to initiate a new blockchain using custom user clients and mining algorithms to issue a custom decentralized virtual currency. The advent of the etherhouse or ibm glyperledge network makes the issuance of certificates simple and requires few settings.

It should be noted that after the ether house, several other virtual currency networks implementing intelligent contracts are established. Prominent examples include IBM hyperlegger, Lisk, and RootStock.

A computer, network, or blockchain may deploy intelligent contracts. An intelligent contract is computer code that implements a contract transaction. The computer code may be executed in a secure platform (e.g., an etherhouse platform or an ibm glypridge platform) that supports transactions in a chain of record blocks. In addition, the smart contract itself is recorded as a transaction in the blockchain using an identity card that is a hash of the computer code (i.e., an identity card) so that the executed computer code can be authenticated. When deploying, the constructor of the intelligent contract executes initialization of the intelligent contract and the state thereof. The state of the intelligent contract is persistently stored in the blockchain (e.g., through a Merkle tree). When a transaction is recorded for a smart contract, a message is sent to the smart contract and computer code of the smart contract is executed to effect the transaction (e.g., debiting an account balance by an amount or transferring patent ownership). The computer processes the code and ensures that all terms of the contract are complied with before the transaction is recorded in the blockchain. For example, a smart contract may require the exchange of one type of cryptocurrency voucher to another type of cryptocurrency voucher. The computer executes code to determine an exchange rate and transfers the correct amount of evidence from the correct account to the correct account.

The blockchain network may include multiple computers, networks, links, and databases. The miner may manage the blockchain, which may include, for example, verifying smart contracts and/or transactions according to smart contracts, updating the blockchain with the verified smart contracts and with transactions performed according to the smart contracts, determining that proposed smart contracts are invalid, determining that transactions are not in compliance with the smart contracts, and so forth.

In some embodiments, the smart contract may be accompanied by a digital certificate or a digital signature containing information about the source of the transaction. Before deploying the smart contract, the computer, network or blockchain will verify this information and determine the authenticity of the transaction source.

The smart contract may determine rules for evaluating the vouching price and the vouching initial state (e.g., the amount of vouching), as well as any other rules that should be applied during the transaction.

The platform itself may build intelligent contracts in real-time based on input generated by artificial intelligence. In particular, the platform allows users to register intellectual property rights and interpret historical data about the value of these assets using sophisticated algorithms (using statistical methods or artificial intelligence and neural networks).

In one embodiment, the platform may provide an intellectual property rating, which may be a factor used to determine an owner credit rating. Furthermore, by using complex algorithms, artificial intelligence, and neural networks, the platform can provide relative value to intellectual property if used properly.

Through smart contracts, the platform may also provide investment terms, including interest rates, terms, and sales conditions, that will be automatically executed. In terms of sales, investors who wish to withdraw from an investment may be funded by selling virtual currency, thereby having minimal impact on the transaction. In other words, the platform may provide an investor with a market for investing intellectual property assets and trading said investments as needed.

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of the present invention. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the platform 102 is a multi-sided platform and includes the source network 100. The platform 102 contains applications 104, and the services provided by the applications 104 include: performing combination management; annual fee payment; searching patents; patent agency networks and trading rooms; and compliance guidelines. The platform 102 also includes a scenario program 106 that may provide patent-based financial, insurance and risk mitigation scenarios. Global patent registry 108 is a blockchain-based patent registry usable by platform users. The platform 102 also utilizes an artificial intelligence data analysis engine 110 and an intelligent contract program 112, the intelligent contract program 112 can buy and sell patents, issue licenses for patents, and handle annual patent fees. The platform 102 is driven by a blockchain (e.g., IBM hyperleeder) that allows intelligent contracts to be deployed to buy and sell intellectual property assets and to issue licenses for intellectual property assets. Importantly, this functionality provides additional features for evaluating assets and associating potential business owners with investors. Other resources utilized by the present invention include partner schemas 114, partner versions of platforms 116, and partner applications 118. Partner schema 114 includes providing patent data analysis, services, and content to partners. Partner versions of the platform 116 are custom platform elements to serve specific regions, verticals, and companies, and provide enhanced platform administrator control. Partner applications 118 allow for further development of applications and leverage through the platform with patent intelligence, marketing, transaction, and billing applications. FIG. 1 further illustrates that a utility-tested engine, such as the Zuse data analysis engine 110, can cooperate with the platform to analyze applications and interface with partner applications 118. Partner versions of the platform may further serve specific vertical, companies, and regions and provide administrative control. Finally, these solutions take into account financial, insurance and risk mitigation solutions.

Fig. 2 is an overview of a partner scenario 200 of the present invention. In another embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the platform may be connected with other partner solutions 200, which partner solutions 200 allow a user base to create personal profiles, display interests in various intellectual property products, and provide identification, participation, and billing tools. The platform may then provide access to experts 202, data analysis 204, legal teams and patent inspectors 206, and reverse engineering lawsuits 208, which may provide input to the valuation process. This enables the platform to deliver marketing tools and flexible revenue sharing options 210 to the appropriate audience. Finally, the platform will implement a billing opportunity and authentication identification 212.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an intelligent guaranty process for a patent asset that employs the present invention. The patent owner 300 may establish an SPV 302 for an intelligent guaranty 304 associated with a patent asset. Templum marks 206 may organize guarantees 304. The investor 308 may purchase ownership insurance at the time of purchase. The patent office 310 may be used to verify proper ownership.

The platform itself may build smart contracts in real-time based on input from the inventor or patent holder. In one embodiment, the inventors filed a patent application and the network utilizes an analysis engine to generate reports on the possibility of patentability based on several criteria, including patentability of the invention, state of the art, and novelty of the inventive steps. The platform also allows users to express interest in insurance and provide rates and premium prices using legal and virtual currency. The user may select the option that is most advantageous to the user at the time.

In another embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the patent owner utilizes an intelligent contract to form a special purpose vehicle with an intelligent guaranty. Third party partners (e.g., Templum marks) are used to organize the liquidity of the lender and the intelligent guarantee between the lender and the lender. The platform provides direct access to the patent office in a decentralized manner. In addition, a utility-tested engine, such as a zuse data analysis engine, may provide the investor with better information. Finally, a global patent registry is formed where patent holders can pledge patents to lenders and investors. The platform provides relevant tools such as research, annuity payment, analytics, data analysis, transaction support, ownership verification, portfolio management, and license issuance policies.

In another embodiment, the platform allows investors to consider investment patent insurance to mitigate risks associated with litigation and intellectual property loss.

While various embodiments of the disclosed technology have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. Likewise, the various schematics may depict an exemplary architecture or other configuration of the disclosed technology, which is done to facilitate an understanding of features and functionality that may be included in the disclosed technology. The disclosed technology is not limited to the exemplary architectures or configurations shown, but rather may utilize a variety of alternative architectures and configurations to implement the desired features. Indeed, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art how to implement alternative functional, logical or physical partitions and configurations to implement the desired features of the techniques disclosed herein. Further, many different constituent module names may be applied to the various partitions in addition to the constituent module names described herein. Moreover, with regard to flow diagrams, operational descriptions, and method claims, the order in which the steps are presented herein should not be construed as to force the various embodiments to perform the recited functions in the same order, unless the context dictates otherwise.

While the disclosed technology has been described above in terms of various exemplary embodiments and implementations, it should be understood that the various features, aspects, and functions described in one or more of the individual embodiments are not limited in their applicability to the particular embodiment described, but may be applied, alone or in various combinations, to one or more of the other embodiments of the disclosed technology, whether or not such embodiments are described, and whether or not such features are presented as being a part of a described embodiment. Thus, the breadth and scope of the techniques disclosed herein should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments.

Terms and phrases used in this document, and variations thereof, unless expressly stated otherwise, should be considered open ended, rather than limiting. As examples of the above: the term "comprising" should be understood to mean "including but not limited to," and the like; the term "example" is used to provide an illustrative example of the item in question, not a detailed or limiting list thereof; the terms "a" and "an" should be understood to mean "at least one," "one or more," and the like; and adjectives such as "conventional," "traditional," "normal," "standard," "known," and terms of similar meaning should not be construed as limiting the item described to a given time period or to an item available as of a given time, but instead should be read to encompass conventional, traditional, normal, or standard technologies that may be available or known now or at any time in the future. Likewise, when this document refers to technologies that are obvious or known to one of ordinary skill in the art, such technologies include those that are obvious or known to those of ordinary skill in the art at any time now or in the future.

The presence of words and phrases such as "one or more," "at least," "but not limited to," or other like phrases in certain instances shall not be construed to imply that a narrower range is desired or required in instances where such extended range phrases may not be present. The use of the term "module" does not imply that the components or functionality described or claimed as part of the module are all configured in a common package. Indeed, any or all of the various components of a module (whether control logic or other components) may be combined in a single package or maintained separately, and may also be distributed across multiple groups or packages or across multiple locations.

Furthermore, the various embodiments set forth herein are described in terms of exemplary block diagrams, flow charts and other illustrations. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading this document that the illustrated embodiments and their various alternatives can be practiced without limitation to the illustrated examples. For example, block diagrams and their accompanying description should not be read to imply a particular architecture or configuration.

Reference documents:

1.“Ethereum Whitepaper,”http://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/white- paper,2016。

Claims (16)

1. a system for trading intellectual property comprising:

a blockchain communication medium for capturing and disseminating information relating to the scope and effectiveness of the intellectual property rights;

a broadcast interface connected to the blockchain media for an original holder of the intellectual property right to create a market for the intellectual property right;

a plurality of receiver interfaces connected to the blockchain media for an intended holder of the intellectual property right to evaluate the intellectual property right to decide whether the intended holder will have an interest in the intellectual property right by creating a final decision; and

intelligent evaluation techniques provided by an intellectual property asset class manager for assisting the intended holder of the intellectual property right in determining whether the intended holder will obtain the intellectual property right from the original holder of the intellectual property right through the final decision based on the scope and the validity of the intellectual property right.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the intellectual property right is a license issuance right.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the intellectual property right is ownership.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the intelligent evaluation technique utilizes an artificial intelligence data evaluation engine.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the holder of intellectual property rights and the intended holder conduct business transactions in a cryptocurrency.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the transacted business is transacted via an intelligent blockchain contract.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein combined management of intellectual property rights for the holder of the intellectual property right and the intended holder comprises paying an annual fee, retrieving the intellectual property right, proxying the intellectual property right, and providing a transaction interface in accordance with applicable compliance rules.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein a patent-based financial, insurance and risk mitigation scheme is provided for a holder of the intellectual property rights.

9. A method of trading intellectual property comprising the steps of:

forming a blockchain communication medium for capturing and disseminating information relating to the scope and effectiveness of the intellectual property rights;

broadcasting information related to the intellectual property right from an original holder of the intellectual property right via an interface connected to the blockchain medium to create a market for the intellectual property right;

formatting a plurality of receiver interfaces connected to the blockchain medium for an intended holder of the intellectual property right to evaluate the intellectual property right in order to decide whether the intended holder will have an interest in the intellectual property right by creating a final decision; and

performing intelligent evaluation techniques provided by an intellectual property asset class manager for assisting the intended holder of the intellectual property right in determining whether the intended holder will obtain the intellectual property right from the original holder of the intellectual property right through the final decision based on the scope and the validity of the intellectual property right.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the intellectual property right is a license issuance right.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the intellectual property right is ownership.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the intelligent evaluation technique utilizes an artificial intelligence data evaluation engine.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the holder of intellectual property rights and the intended holder conduct business transactions in a cryptocurrency.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the transacted business is transacted via an intelligent blockchain contract.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein combined management of intellectual property rights for the holder of the intellectual property right and the intended holder comprises paying an annual fee, retrieving the intellectual property right, proxying the intellectual property right, and providing a transaction interface in accordance with applicable compliance rules.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein a patent-based financial, insurance and risk mitigation scheme is provided for a holder of the intellectual property rights.

Images