Alibaba to implement blockchain in intellectual property system

Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba is going to integrate blockchain technology into its intellectual property protection system of enterprises and brands, Cointelegraph reported citing a report from Sohu.

Ali Xizhi, the company’s director of intellectual property protection, said that the process is currently underway to upgrade the filing of intellectual property rights using blockchain.

For this upgrade, the company has purportedly leveraged the blockchain platform of Ant Financial Group, Alibaba Group’s financial affiliate.

With initial plans to implement the technology in the intellectual property system, Alibaba is reportedly planning to expand it to other areas of digital copyright protection such as audio and video content. The application of blockchain technology is expected to benefit “to tens of millions of small and medium-sized enterprises, brands and entrepreneurs,” Sohu stated (via online translation).

The Ali Intellectual Property Protection Platform (IPP Platform) will allow electronic deposits from global brands to directly link to the Internet Court through blockchain technology, providing a basis for litigation rights protection.

Last September, the Supreme People’s Court allowed electronic data recorded on a blockchain to be submitted as evidence in legal disputes in China. The country has reportedly established Internet courts in Hangzhou, Beijing and Guangzhou with the objective of managing internet-related cases.

In October 2018, Alibaba Cloud announced the expansion of its Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) offering to major global markets including South East Asia, the U.S, and Europe.

Earlier this year, Alibaba signed a cooperation agreement with software company Aerospace Information for cloud computing, blockchain, and other technological services development.