"Daniel Nazer, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Fortune that applications to patent the blockchain — which is a form of software — face a high hurdle due to a Supreme Court case called Alice. That decision ruled that most, or perhaps all, software patents are abstract ideas that are ineligible for patent protection.
He added that many such patent applications would also have to overcome objections that the “invention” they claim is obvious. This is especially the case, said Nazer, because the applications are not for foundational concepts like bitcoin or the blockchain itself—concepts that could not be patented today since bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, disclosed them to the public years ago.
But Nazer remains concerned the Patent Office will fail to apply the proper quality controls, and will issue weak blockchain patents all the same.
“I’m concerned the system will fail and there will be lots of abstract and mundane patents for ‘use of the blockchain for X,’ and then everyone will have to negotiate legal minefields and innovation will slow,” he said."
- Date Published:12/01/2016
- Original Publication:Fortune