What comes to mind when you think of intellectual property? If you’re like most people, you picture massive corporations like Microsoft, Facebook, Disney, Apple, or Tesla. It’s not hard to see why we think of the biggest brands. Larger companies have the resources to develop and market the most innovative technology and content, are often vicious about protecting it, and play a larger role in the IP landscape. But smaller brands also have valuable innovations, and deserve full ownership and control over them.
As part of its efforts to transform the virtual goods industry, BLMP is making it easier than ever for small brands to protect their intellectual property rights. The platform uses blockchain technology to facilitate licensing agreements for branded content and to track how that content is used. Through these methods, BLMP allows small brands to create content, exert full control over it, and make sure no one is using it without permissions. As a result, small companies will be able to use intellectual property every bit as effectively and profitably as their larger counterparts.
BLMP, Briefly
BLMP is rapidly resolving the flaws of the virtual goods industry, a $50 billion market that could be worth even more if not for a host of licensing problems. Virtual goods are digital items that can be bought, sold, and traded on social media or in video games. The most valuable such goods contain logos, trademarked characters, and other branded content. These goods require the cooperation of multiple parties, including the artists that create them, the brands that own their content, and the gaming platforms, social networks, and other publishers that sells them to the public.
These three parties need to sign licensing agreements before they can create and sell branded goods. But such agreement are hard to develop, in part because there is so much uncertainty among everyone involved. Brands are worried that publishers and creators will use their intellectual property in ways they did not authorize, while publishers and creators fear they won’t get proper credit or compensation for their contributions. This makes many companies hesitant to sign licensing agreements, and when such an agreement is signed, all three parties are likely to dispute the way it is enforced.
To eliminate this problem, BLMP has developed blockchain-based smart contracts to use for licensing agreements. Such contracts are designed to enforce themselves based on data and terms that are stored in the blockchain. This takes the human element out of contract enforcement, ensuring that the agreement is enacted in an unbiased way and everyone gets what they have been promised.
In addition to smart licensing agreements, BLMP has developed a method of tracking how branded goods are used. By assigning those goods a serial number and saving that number in the blockchain, the platform ensures that no good is used without permission. This further increases certainty among the three major players while allowing consumers to be confident that what they are buying is the real deal.
BLMP, IP, & Small Brands
BLMP’s efforts will make intellectual property rights more secure for all companies involved in the virtual goods market. But they are particularly valuable for small brands, which have had to struggle to uphold their rights. The platform eliminates the most serious problems these brands have faced, including:
- IP Detection- Small brands lack the resources and expertise to monitor all the ways that their intellectual property is used. If a virtual good that belongs to a small brand becomes popular and widely used, that brand will have trouble keeping track of all the ways consumers are using that product. If they fail to pay for it or use it in a way the brand doesn’t approve of, the brand may not be able to stop them or even find out about it. But by tracking how all branded virtual goods are used, BLMP allows such small companies to stay alert to any unauthorized uses and put a stop to them immediately.
- Contract Enforcement- Besides being ill equipped to keep track of how their IP is used, small brands lack the resources to defend their contractual rights, especially against violations by large publishers. Even if there is clear evidence that the publisher did not respect the brand’s contractual rights, if the publisher has more resources and a better legal team, they’ll have the upper hand in any dispute. But because BLMP’s smart contracts enforce themselves, publishers that violate brands’ rights will face automatic consequences, no matter how much money or legal support they have.
- Collaboration Enhancement- Besides helping small brands defend their intellectual property, BLMP makes it easier for them to use that property in the first place. Through the platform, small brands can connect with artists who have an interest in using their logos and other trademarks, as well as with publishers who want to distribute them. And because it is so easy to form a licensing agreement on the platform, there are few barriers to these three parties working together. Small brands will thus have no trouble profiting fully from all the IP they own.
Defending small brands’ IP rights is critical to encouraging innovation and consumer choice in the virtual goods industry. As long as the market is dominated by a few large brands, there is little incentive to create new, unique goods. But if small brands are confident that their IP rights will be protected, they’ll get involved in this space as well. They can offer consumers a cornucopia of new digital items while spurring large brands to innovate as well.
BLMP ©2018, Singapore
BLMP (Blockchain Licensing Marketplace) is a blockchain technology company working to remove obstacles and facilitate trust in the complex issues surrounding supply chain management transactions in the virtual goods industry.
BLMP Network uses blockchain technology to connect digital platforms around the world with global brands to monetize officially licensed virtual goods across any digital platform; from games to streaming services & social media, allowing millions of users access to a whole new world of branded virtual products.
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