Indeed, some education is needed regarding blockchain use case for protecting intellectual property rights. This why the World Intellectual Property Organization is pushing blockchain as a game-changing technology for IP protection and released a 189-page white paper on Blockchain technologies and IP ecosystems: https://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/cws/en/pdf/blockchain-for-ip-ecosystem-whitepaper.pdf
A short abstract:
Copyright and related rights
Original creative works are protected without the need for registration or formal requirements. However, in some instances, right holders may voluntarily register the works in copyright registries as a proof of authorship and/or ownership, the date of generation to justify protection and to facilitate management and economic exploitation of their copyright.
Blockchain technologies may also facilitate the automation of processes and systems used by collective management organizations (CMOs), and information access by potential users. This latter example could be also implemented via the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Further, smart contract solutions may facilitate additional patterns for negotiating licenses either individually or collectively by CMOs or other entities.
Blockchain solutions facilitate user access to both digital content and identification of the actors involved in the process that goes from its generation to where it is accessible to the public. The use of blockchain may facilitate the calculation of royalties for collection from users and how these royalties have to be distributed among the different right holders.
Finally, similar to industrial property rights, copyright and related rights can be tokenized and used as bonds to finance artistic projects. In practice the application of smart contract and blockchain solutions in this context creates a technical continuum between licensing, other contractual practices and technological protection measures for original literary and artistic works on the one hand and for other non-original digital content on the other.
Protection and access to digital data
Blockchain technologies can provide efficient solutions to protect data. Having in mind the uncertainties that exist in relation to its protection under the current IP rights regimes, tokenization could provide solutions to ensure that data sets and their owners are clearly identified and kept confidential, and that only authorized users can make use of proprietary data. For instance, where reasonable measures to maintain secrecy of data have been taken and other requirements fulfilled, the adoption of these measures along with the use of smart contracts would allow holders of undisclosed information to claim protection of that data as trade secrets in case of unlawful appropriation.
IP right enforcement
An essential challenge for participants in IP ecosystems is the enforcement of their IP rights before judicial courts, administrative bodies, custom authorities or institutions providing alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services. The use of smart contracts may reduce litigation in so far as performance of the obligations takes place, while the contract can be automatically terminated once the software detects that a condition is either met or not met anymore.
In case of disputes, blockchain solutions can help to secure evidence in relation to ownership and time of content generation. In case of disputes concerning licenses on digital assets, it may also provide evidence on unauthorized use by third parties, thereby enabling blockchain solutions to be more easily introduced in ADR institutions. Lastly, blockchain applications may considerably impact the prevention of counterfeiting and piracy.