方興未艾之區塊鏈專利

Emerging Blockchain Patents

國際上區塊鏈專利申請之狀況如何？區塊鏈專利是否可能獲准，從而減緩甚或危及區塊鏈之創新？是本文關注之議題。本文檢索發現國際上已核准公告之區塊鏈專利尚屬有限，但已有不少公開但尚未核准公告之專利申請案。雖然美國最高法院於二○一四年之Alice案幾乎宣告軟體與電子商務方法專利之死刑，然依據聯邦巡迴上訴法院於二○一六年Enfish案之見解，一件發明若有改變資料庫結構，從而提高電腦運作之效能，例如提升電腦「將資料寫入記憶體」以及「自記憶體中擷取資料」之效能，可被認定具有專利適格性而非僅是抽象思想。區塊鏈本身可視為一種新的點對點之分散式資料庫，其技術大幅提升電腦與網際網路「將資料寫入記憶體」以及「自記憶體中擷取資料」之效能，而非僅是使用「通常電腦」來執行電腦程式，故具有通過Alice案二段測試法之可能性。準此，區塊鏈產業之創新與發展，確實可能受阻於專利戰爭之泥淖中。

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