40-firm coalition to fight against blockchain intellectual property abuse

A coalition of players in the blockchain ecosystem have organized to manage intellectual issues and encourage innovation. The new group, called the Blockchain Intellectual Property Council (BIPC), was officially announced on March 16, 2017, by the Chamber of Digital Commerce at the Blockchain Summit in Washington D.C.

This initiative aims to work with the members to balance the protection of proprietary innovation with freedom to operate in a manner that fosters innovation.

Rimon Partner, Marc Kaufman, a co-chair of the BIPC, comments: “It is imperative for the players in the blockchain ecosystem to balance proprietary intellectual property rights with interoperability and freedom to operate to foster innovation in this promising technology space. The goal of the BIPC is to provide a forum for the industry players to work together to strike this balance.”

The BIPC’s executive committee includes Chain, Digital Asset, IBM, Microsoft, CoinDesk, Blockstream, Bloq, Civic, Cognizant, Deloitte, Digital Currency Group, Ernst & Young, Gem, Medici Ventures, T0.com, TMX and Wipfli.

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