WIPO offers ‘tamper-proof’ tool to protect assets
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has launched an online business service aimed at helping innovators and creators take verifiable actions to safeguard the many outputs of their work.
WIPO Proof provides tamper-proof evidence of the existence at a point in time of any digital file, including data sets, in any format.
The service can protect content including trade secrets, scripts, musical scores and other creative works, in addition to research results, large data sets, artificial intelligence algorithms, and any business record.
In launching the service, WIPO director general Francis Gurry said: “In a highly dynamic global economy where value is increasingly based on human activity enabled by digital technologies and big data, it is critical to be able to prove that you were in possession of your intellectual asset's digital files.
“WIPO Proof helps innovators and creators better protect their digital outputs and represents a significant step in expanding WIPO’s suite of services that meet the demands of the digital economy.”
As a sort of digital notary service, WIPO Proof will create a date- and time-stamped fingerprint of a digital file.
According to the UN body, the new service provides an “efficient tool” for creating evidence of the existence of an asset's digital files, helping mitigate the risk of future legal disputes and laying a foundation for any eventual registration of a formal IP right.
In April, WIPO launched an online dashboard to allow stakeholders to monitor its operations, including its financial performance and its IP services, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier that month, WIPO reported record results for the organisation’s global IP services, with international patent applications filed via the Patent Cooperation Treaty growing by 5.2% to 265,800 in 2019. In 2009, 155,408 applicants were filed through the system, amounting to 71% growth in the ten-year period.
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