Page 17 - How to Successfully Obtain Blockchain Patents Brochure
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Strategy tips
Obtaining blockchain patents requires a thorough understanding of the rules regarding patent-eligibility, careful analysis on the front end to pursue an invention in a way that is likely to pass muster, then carefully drafting the patent application and claims to meet the two-part test. Here are some specific strategy tips for doing so, assuming you have already qualified the invention as distinguishable over the prior art and fall within in one of the four statutory categories of invention (processes, machines, manufactures and compositions of matter).
1.Merely claiming the following is not is not likely patentable:
a. the use of blockchain for implementing a known process;
b. merely reciting a smart contract to perform a known or obvious function
c. merely reciting the tokenization of an asset
2. Assess the novel aspects of the invention at various levels to determine uniqueness from the underlying technology up to the application level.
3. If technology-related:
a. articulate a technical solution to a technical problem, if feasible;
b. try to draft claims that are not directed to an abstract idea. i.e., try to avoid claiming mathematical concepts, methods of organizing human activity or mental processes; ensure that the claim recites more than just using a computer;
4. If application-related, try to characterize the invention in a way that is not directed to an abstract idea
a. focus on any technical aspects of the invention that are necessary to enable the invention, such as: i) any improvement to the functioning of a computer or other technology needed to implement the invention; ii) using a particular machine or manufacture that is integral to implementing the invention; or iii) applying or using the abstract idea in some meaningful way;
 Step
  Analysis
  1: Statutory Category?
 Yes. The claim recites a series of acts for distributing stock quotes to selected remote devices. Thus, the claim is directed to a process.
  2A - Prong 1: Judicial Exception Recited?
 Yes. The claim recites the steps of receiving, filtering, formatting and transmitting stock quote information. In other words, the claim recites comparing and formatting information for transmission. This is simply the organization and comparison of data which can be performed mentally
and is an idea of itself. Therefore, the claim is directed to an abstract idea of a mental process or organizing human activity.
   2A - Prong 2: Integrated into a Practical Application?
 Yes. It is noted that, as discussed
above, some of the limitations when viewed individually do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea (such as storing subscriber preferences or transmitting an alert). However, the claimed invention also addresses the Internet-centric challenge of alerting
a subscriber with time sensitive information when the subscriber’s computer is offline.
These are meaningful limitations that add more than generally linking the use of the abstract idea (the general concept of organizing and comparing data) to the Internet, because they solve an Internet-centric problem with a claimed solution that is necessarily rooted in computer technology. These limitations, when taken as an ordered combination, provide unconventional steps that confine the abstract idea to a particular useful application.
Thus, the claim is eligible.
 2B: Claim provides an Inventive Concept?
  N/A.
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