New pending patent applications are published by the USPTO on Thursdays. Today's Spotlight Applications continue our theme of blockchains (smart contracts, distributed ledgers) and rights management broadly construed. Assigned to CapOne, the first application discloses techniques for authorized data sharing using smart contracts. Assigned to BurstIQ, the second application discloses techniques for accessing digital assets in a blockchain using owner consent contracts.
20200389311, "Authorized data sharing using smart contracts," assigned to Capital One.
Abstract
Systems as described herein may include authorizing the sharing of data and sharing data between a variety of systems. A request to share data may be provided to a first system. The system may create sharing session data using smart contracts executed by a distributed network system. Sharing session data may be stored using a smart contract. A second system may obtain the sharing session data and verify the sharing session based on the execution of the smart contract. On verification of the sharing session, a variety of data may be shared between the systems identified in the sharing session data. The sharing session data may be established between two systems and/or a number of systems. Smart contracts may provide a variety of functions for authorizing the sharing of data between systems. Additionally, encrypted data may be stored and/or obtained using a smart contract.
20200389309, "Systems and methods for accessing digital assets in a blockchain using owner consent contracts," assigned to BurstIQ Analytics Corporation.
Abstract
A consent block is a type of block that may be stored in a blockchain. Each consent block has an owner and may store an owner consent contract, i.e., a smart contract containing owner-specified access rules that determine who may access data assets that are stored in other blocks of the blockchain and owned by the same owner. The consent block also stores a hash value determined from the owner consent contract and a previous hash value of the block immediately preceding the consent block. The owner consent contract and the position of the consent block in the blockchain are verifiable from the hash value. Each consent block, once added to the blockchain, becomes part of the immutable record of data stored in the blockchain, and therefore leaves an auditable trail of who had access to which data, and when.
