5 December 2018
The UEB has held
his first major conference on the blockchain patent. Attended for over 300
participants, the one-day event at A & E has explored yesterday on
implications of the blockchain for patent applicants and other interested parties such as
technology is applied to an ever increasing variety of technical fields.
Koen Lievens of the EPO and Wang Xinyi of the CNIPA present the approaches of the offices to handle blockchain patent applications.
In his welcome speech EPO President António
Campinos stressed that "the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution are
gaining more and more momentum – and everyone in IP must come to terms with
technical developments that are driving this period of great changes – and to
understand their impact. "Noting that the patent applications for blockchain are
getting up quickly, he underlined that such patents are however examined by the
EPO according to stable criteria developed on the basis of jurisprudence
on computer-implemented inventions: "Our guidelines for the examination are
constantly reviewed and adapted to ensure that these criteria are transparent and
that our practice remains predictable, both for examiners and for outsiders
stakeholders ".
The first speakers treated the
basics on the blockchain, which expose the fundamental principles, the protagonists and the areas of
use for this new technology and the first group discussed the future impact of
this field now rapidly developing and its links with other digital unfolding
technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).
The first blockchain conference of EPO, held at its site at Hague on December 4, 2018
During the day, also the participants
heard about the growing challenges of blockchain research, legal issues
associated with blockchain and, in particular, how EPO examines the blockchain
patent applications. An analysis of the emerging patent landscape has revealed
a sharp increase in patent applications since 2015 – a trend similar to that
seen in the case of related technical fields such as AI and self-driving
vehicles. Presentations on approaches in China and Japan, which also show
steep climbs in blockchain applications, have therefore been met with particular
interest, especially as regards the similarities and differences in treatment
of blockchain.
At the end of the conference, the vice president of operations of the EPO Alberto
Casado highlighted the potential of the blockchain for innovation in a near-term
unlimited number of uses, saying that "we are at the beginning of a revolution.
Blockchain started in the financial sector – but it is spreading in all fields of
industrial applications. It is growing in all fields ".
