TRANSACTION-ENABLED SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SMART CONTRACTS

Abstract

Transaction-enabled systems and methods for smart contracts are disclosed. An example system may include a smart contract wrapper structured to aggregate intellectual property (IP) licensing terms corresponding to a plurality of IP assets, access a distributed ledger comprising the aggregated IP licensing terms and a plurality of IP references corresponding to the plurality of IP assets, interpret an IP description value and an IP addition request, and add an IP asset to the plurality of IP assets in response to the IP description value, and add IP licensing terms corresponding to the added IP asset to the aggregated IP licensing terms in response to the IP description value and the IP addition request.

Claims

1. A transaction-enabling system comprising: a smart contract wrapper structured to: aggregate intellectual property (IP) licensing terms corresponding to a plurality of IP assets; access a distributed ledger comprising the aggregated IP licensing terms and a plurality of IP references corresponding to the plurality of IP assets; interpret an IP description value and an IP addition request; and add an IP asset to the plurality of IP assets in response to the IP description value, and add IP licensing terms corresponding to the added IP asset to the aggregated IP licensing terms in response to the IP description value and the IP addition request.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the distributed ledger comprises at least one instruction set, and wherein an operation on the distributed ledger provides provable access to the at least one instruction set.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the smart contract wrapper is further structured to embed at least one IP licensing term for intellectual property in the distributed ledger, and wherein executing an operation on the distributed ledger provides access to the intellectual property, and commits an executing party to the aggregated IP licensing terms.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the smart contract wrapper is further structured to verify a chain of licensing and sublicensing corresponding to at least one of the plurality of IP assets.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one instruction set comprises a smart contract term operation, and wherein the smart contract term operation provides at least one feature selected from a list of features consisting of: provable access control, validation of terms, and tracking of utilization.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the aggregated IP licensing terms further comprise an attribute selected from a list of attributes consisting of: usage rights, fields of use, field exclusivity, partial exclusivity, pools, standard terms, technology transfer terms, performance-related rights, further obligations to a user, user selections, limitations, time frames, and royalty rates.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a data store having a copy of the distributed ledger stored thereon, and wherein the plurality of IP references further comprises a reference to the data store for the at least one of the plurality of IP assets.

8. A method, comprising: accessing a distributed ledger comprising a plurality of intellectual property (IP) references corresponding to a plurality of IP assets, and at least one IP licensing term; adding an IP asset to the plurality of IP assets in response to the IP description value; adding IP licensing terms corresponding to the added IP asset to the at least one IP licensing term in response to the IP description value and the IP addition request; and committing a party to the added licensing term via an IP transaction wrapper of the distributed ledger.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the distributed ledger comprises at least one instruction set, and wherein the method further comprises providing provable access to the at least one instruction set.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising executing an operation on the distributed ledger to provide access to the added IP asset, and committing an executing party to the added IP licensing term.

11. The method of claim 8, further verifying a chain of licensing and sublicensing for the plurality of IP assets.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein each one of the at least one IP licensing terms further comprise an attribute selected from a list of attributes consisting of: usage rights, fields of use, field exclusivity, partial exclusivity, pools, standard terms, technology transfer terms, performance-related rights, further obligations to a user, user selections, limitations, time frames, and royalty rates.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one instruction set comprises a smart contract term operation.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the smart contract term operation provides at least one feature selected from a list of features consisting of: provable access control, validation of terms, and tracking of utilization.

15. A transaction-enabling system comprising: a smart contract wrapper structured to: aggregate intellectual property (IP) licensing terms corresponding to a plurality of IP assets; access a distributed ledger comprising the aggregated IP licensing terms; interpret an IP description value and an IP addition request; add an IP asset to the plurality of IP assets in response to the IP description value; associate at least one of the IP licensing terms with the added IP asset in response to the IP description value and the IP addition request; and provide an operation on the distributed ledger to commit a party to the associated one of the at least one of the IP licensing terms via an IP transaction wrapper of the distributed ledger.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the distributed ledger comprises at least one instruction set, and wherein an operation on the distributed ledger provides provable access to the at least one instruction set.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the smart contract wrapper is further structured to embed at least one IP licensing term for intellectual property in the distributed ledger, and wherein executing an operation on the distributed ledger provides access to the intellectual property and commits an executing party to the aggregated IP licensing terms.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the smart contract wrapper is further structured to verify a chain of licensing and sublicensing corresponding to at least one of the plurality of IP assets.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one instruction set comprises a smart contract term operation and wherein the smart contract term operation provides at least one feature selected from a list of features consisting of: provable access control, validation of terms, and tracking of utilization.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the aggregated IP licensing terms further comprise an attribute selected from a list of attributes consisting of: usage rights, fields of use, field exclusivity, partial exclusivity, pools, standard terms, technology transfer terms, performance-related rights, further obligations to a user, user selections, limitations, time frames, and royalty rates.