It Always Seems Impossible Until It Is Done
As poignantly expressed by Nelson Mandela, many tasks seem impossible until someone comes along and does it. That is what we at Acumen Network aim to do by reforming the modern patent system.
We have been investing in Initial Coin Offerings and Presales for a while now and we completely understand how skepticism goes a long ways in protecting yourself the cryptocurrency community. While there are many wonderful practical applications of blockchain technology being created, there are also many scams that use buzz words allowing their founders to make a quick buck. The Acumen team understands how the goal of creating a “global, decentralized patent system” can seem like such a monumental task that it must be a scam. We hope that we can convince you that our project is a legitimate investment that can really change the world.
Obviously the Acumen Network would be useless the patents are actually protected by the judiciaries of governments. We understand that governments throughout the world already have their own patent offices that have been around for hundreds of years. An attempt to make a global patent system has been tried many times, however countries refuse to protect a patent that wasn’t filed in their offices as the applicant has not paid that country yet leading to the country feeling like they have been cheated out of application fees. That is why currently a patent filed in the US is not protected in Indonesia. We aim to change all that.
We do not ask you to believe that we will immediately change hundreds of years of legislation immediately. No, in order to prove to the governments of various countries that Acumen is a trustworthy and credibly protocol, Acumen must be tested and proven to meet all the requirements set forth by Congress. Therefore we have broken this reform up into three main stages.
We have divided the reforms into three stages.
Stage 1: Establish community and credibility
In the beginning our main goal is to prove that our testnet works. We will incentivize members of community to act as mock patent examiners, engineers, judges, and members of the community. Participants will receive Acumen Token as a reward for supporting the testing the network. Participants will sign up to conduct scenarios. An example of this is some members will act as a patent troll corporation who file a bad patent and is then approved by a corrupt patent examiner. The community then vetoes that patent and sends it back thus simulating how the Acumen Network would work in a perfect world. These scenarios will continue until the network is production ready. This stage will end once the legal community recognizes Acumen Network as not just a cool piece of technology, but a professional network running production level software.
Stage 2: License Acumen Network to Government’s Patent Offices
It is unrealistic to believe that governments will immediately change their whole legislation to replace their patent offices with the Acumen Network. Therefore our second stage revolves around gradually having countries warm up to the idea. Just like how many corporations like Visa and Microsoft are developing blockchain applications due to the transparency and immutability of the protocol, the blockchain serves several advantages to govenrments. The main advantage here is the simplicity when auditing as everything on the blockchain is saved forever as well as increased security. During this stage we will market as well as use the community to convince their government to begin the change by switching to a blockchain database. Many countries such as Estonia, South Korea, and Denmark have favorable attitudes towards blockchain technology so we will begin with them.
Stage 3: Reform judicial system to include community consensus
Once countries begin to use Acumen, then we will begin to continue to democratize the system. This is a heftier goal as it includes many more changes. We plan to change how the judicial system examines patent infringement cases to ensure that patent trolls are eradicated and small companies prosper. This will require essentially using the traditional court system only for appeals and using community consensus to hear patent infringement cases. This community consensus will essentially be a large-scale and remote jury for civil patent cases. Currently criminal cases have juries so that people can be sentenced by their peers, however this doesn’t work for patents since they are too complicated for regular people to understand. Under the Acumen Network, the jury will consist of a network of accredited lawyers and engineers that have the knowledge required to hear these cases.
Another concern is this really a necessary invention or is just another ploy for some engineers to make a quick buck off the ICO bubble. The fact of the matter is that today’s patent system is seriously flawed. Patents are prohibitively expensive and the number of patent trolls are growing. Many people have tried to solve this problem but to no avail. While this is a serious issue, most governments have “more important” matters to deal with and the patent system is just a side thought. To be blunt, the patent system is in desperate need to an update.
The ability to create a public immutable ledger allows for the community to control intellectual property and decrease corruption. According to CBS News from 2008 to 2013, the patent approval rose from 60 percent to 89 percent. This is because of the massive backlog that the USPTO faces. The USPTO is so overwhelmed that they have been forced to lower their patent approval standards approving much weaker patents weakening the whole IP system. This is bad for all business as companies must be more careful about accidentally infringing on a patent that shouldn’t have been approved stifling innovation in the economy.
Congress is also getting interested in blockchain. On February 9th, 2017, the US Congressional Blockchain Caucus was launched in order to investigate the blockchain. The Chamber of Digital Commerce and the Congressional Blockchain Caucus held “Congressional Blockchain Education Day” on July 11, 2017 to inform all members of Congress about this revolutionary new technology. The fact of the matter is patents and blockchains technology go together like cookies and milk.This trend will only continue unless someone alleviates the stress on the USPTO. If we do not succeed, someone else will have this idea and push forward. This problem must be solved and we know that the Acumen Network will be the solution and we hope that you will support us too.
Citations
Sherman, Erik. “Patent Bonanza Is Bad for Business.” CBS News. CBS News, 26 Mar. 2013. Web. 23 July 2017.
Weismann, Cale Guthrie. “Patent Approval Has Been Rising, but That Doesn’t Necessarily Mean More Innovation.” Pando. Pando, 13 Sept. 2013. Web. 23 July 2017.
