Could Patents Freeze Blockchain’s Progress?

Everywhere you look, somebody’s talking about blockchain technology and its amazing future. In fact, the healthcare industry is engaging in perhaps the most aggressive blockchain deployments of any industry, according to Deloitte.

Originally, blockchain was an open-source platform, freely available to anyone who wanted to use it. But that could soon change, if a new item from Reuters is any indication.

According to the news service, Aussie computer scientist Craig Wright – who claims to be the pseudonymous “Satoshi Nakamoto” responsible for the technology – is working with Canadian online gambling entrepreneur Calvin Ayre to patent aspects of bitcoin/blockchain tech.

To date Wright, who’s being funded by the wealthy Canadian, has filed more than 70 patent applications in Britain in cooperation with associates. This may not sound like a big deal, but it is, considering that only 63 blockchain-related patents were filed globally last year, according Reuters.

Not only that, Wright plans to file many more, Reuters research has concluded. The patent applications include approaches specific to healthcare, including storage of medical documents. Ultimately, Wright and his partners plan to file as many as 400 patent applications, the news service reports.

Ayre is investing in blockchain largely because he sees it as a good fit with the gambling business. And that serves Wright’s interests, which have included online gambling for decades. In fact, Reuters notes that the bitcoin code base contains unimplemented functions related to poker. So it makes sense that he wants to lock it down and own it.

That being said, it seems unlikely that well-funded corporate interests – including healthcare organizations – are going to just sit back and ignore these developments. After all, companies spent more than $1.5 billion on blockchain technology during 2016, and they’re likely to scale up further this year. In other words, they’re not going to let go of blockchain technology without a fight.

Also, it’s worth noting that none of the 70 existing patent applications have been granted to date, and according to Reuters it’s not clear if they’ll even be enforceable if they are.

Finally, Ayer’s history in the U.S. raises questions as to whether he’s completely above-board. In the past, most of his online gambling revenue came from the U.S., a highly-lucrative business which made him extremely rich. But offering such a platform was and is illegal in many states, and as a result one of the states (Maryland) indicted his online gambling network Bodog, Ayer himself and four other people. The case is still pending.

All told, it doesn’t seem likely that health IT organizations need to drop their blockchain plans anytime soon. But it’s worth bearing in mind that blockchain development may be more complicated – and more expensive – in the future.

About the author

Anne Zieger

Anne Zieger is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

1 Comment

  • Blockchain is nothing more than an additive database with a web service interface. There is nothing new here and it won’t help healthcare providers in any way. they will still have to figure out how to get their particular health information format into the Blockchain format, and then transfer it back the other way so they can read it and take action. While the thinking behind a central repository is correct, All this translating back and forth is not. What we need (and of course what my company provides) is a healthcare information format that already has a graphical user interface and is available on the internet. Using that format and interface will keep healthcare providers from having to write all these web services and translation programs.

Click here to post a comment
   

Categories