| 英文摘要 |
It’s important to study how the status of blockchain patent applications worldwide is and whether the patent applications would be granted to slow down or even impede the innovation of blockchain technology. This article conducts a patent search and finds that there are still few blockchain patents issued but there are already many patent applications worldwide. Although the US Supreme Court in the Alice case in 2014 almost declared the death of the software and e-commerce method patents, the Enfish case by the Federal Circuit in 2016 seems to provide a life for the blockchain patents. According to the opinion of the Federal Circuit in the Enfish case, an invention that improves the performance of a computer by changing the structure of a database, such as enhancing the performance of the computer “to write data into memory” and “to retrieve data from memory,” can be found to be patent-eligible rather than only an abstract idea. The blockchain itself can be seen as a new, peer-to-peer, decentralized database that dramatically enhances the performance of computers and the Internet by “writing data into memory” and “retrieving data from memory”, not just use the “generic computer” to execute the computer programs. Accordingly, it’s possible for the blockchain patent applications to “survive” under the Alice two-prong test. Therefore, the blockchain innovation may indeed be “blocked” in the mud of potential patent wars
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