New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Clause, the first patent addresses techniques for forming, storing, managing, and executing contracts. Assigned to Accenture, the second patent addresses techniques for entitlement tracking and control with blockchain technology.
10,445,698, "System and method for forming, storing, managing, and executing contracts," assigned to Clause, Inc.
Abstract
A system and method for computable contracts that includes a contract management system accessible by involved parties, managing a formation stage of a contract document by obtaining object components, assembling a contract object graph from the object components, and committing the contract object graph to post formation execution; and in an execution environment during a post-formation stage, executing the contract object graph where instances of execution include receiving a contract state update, and appending at least one update object component to the contract object graph in accordance with the contract state update. Variations of the system and method may apply peer-to-peer negotiation and execution, use a cryptographic directed acyclic contract object graph, and/or interface with distributed ledgers.
10,430,563, "Blockchain enhanced entitlement control," assigned to Accenture.
Abstract
Systems and methods for entitlement tracking and control with blockchain technology are provided. A server node may receive usage information indicating usage of a licensed component by a remote device. The server node may generate a datablock that includes the usage information and append the datablock to a blockchain. The server node may acquire, from the blockchain, a license smart contract. The license smart contract may include control logic to control access to the license component. The server node may control access to the license component by the remote device based on the usage information and the control logic.
