New patent applications are published by the USPTO on Thursdays. Today's Spotlight Applications continue the theme of blockchain (block chain, distributed ledger) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to the US Postal Service, the first application discloses techniques for a digital trust architecture. Assigned to Kountable, the second application discloses techniques that utilize blockchain digital certificates for data transactions.
20180083771, "Methods and systems for a digital trust architecture," assigned to the United States Postal Service
.Abstract
In some aspects, methods and systems for a digital trust architecture are provided. In some aspects, the architecture includes a user account provisioning process. The provisioning process may make use of in person verifications of some personal information to ensure authenticity of the user information. Once the authenticity of user information is established, an account may be created. The user account may include a user email account, with integrated access to digital certificates linked to the user account. Account creation may also automatically publish the new user's public key in a publicly accessible directory, enabling encrypted email information to be easily sent to the new user.
20180082291, "Systems and methods that utilize blockchain digital certificates for data transactions," assigned to Kountable, Inc.
Abstract
Systems and methods that use blockchain digital certificates are described herein. One embodiment includes generating a digital certificate including transaction data for a transaction, creating a blockchain blob of the transaction data, generating an electronic ownership token for the digital certificate, and transferring the electronic ownership token to an owner of the digital certificate.
