Knowledge distribution systems for controlling rights related to digital knowledge

Abstract

Knowledge distribution system for controlling rights related to digital knowledge are disclosed. The system may include an input system to receive an instance of digital knowledge from a user; a tokenization system to tokenize the digital knowledge and a ledger management system to store the tokenized digital knowledge. The system may further include a smart contract system to implement a smart contract via the distributed ledger, perform a smart contract action with respect to the tokenized digital knowledge in response to an occurrence of a triggering event; process commitments of a plurality of parties to the smart contract; and manage rights of control of and access to the tokenized digital knowledge according to the smart contract. The distributed ledger includes a plurality of cryptographically linked blocks distributed over a plurality of nodes of a network.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A knowledge distribution system for controlling rights related to digital knowledge, the system comprising:
 an input system configured to receive an instance of digital knowledge from a user;   a tokenization system configured to tokenize the digital knowledge such that the instance of digital knowledge can be manipulated as a token;   a ledger management system configured to:
 create and manage a distributed ledger; and 
 store the tokenized digital knowledge via the distributed ledger; and 
   a smart contract system in communication with the distributed ledger, the smart contract system configured to:   implement a smart contract via the distributed ledger, wherein the smart contract comprises tokenized digital knowledge, a triggering event, and a corresponding smart contract action;   perform a smart contract action with respect to the tokenized digital knowledge in response to an occurrence of the triggering event;   process commitments of a plurality of parties to the smart contract;   manage rights of control of and access to the tokenized digital knowledge according to the smart contract; and   manage the smart contract action in response to the triggering event,   wherein the distributed ledger comprises a plurality of cryptographically linked blocks distributed over a plurality of nodes of a network.   
     
     
         2 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises intellectual property of an intellectual property rights holder, wherein the smart contract system is further configured to:
 embed intellectual property licensing terms for the intellectual property in the distributed ledger, and   execute, in response to the triggering event, an operation on the distributed ledger to: i) provide access to the intellectual property; or 2) process a commitment of one party of the plurality of parties to the smart contract and corresponding intellectual property licensing terms.   
     
     
         3 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the smart contract further comprises a smart contract wrapper configured to add intellectual property to an aggregate stack of intellectual property. 
     
     
         4 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 3 , wherein the smart contract further comprises a smart contract wrapper configured to perform an operation on the distributed ledger to add intellectual property, and to commit parties in the distributed ledger to an apportionment of royalties for the added intellectual property. 
     
     
         5 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 4 , wherein the smart contract wrapper is further configured to add the added intellectual property to an aggregate stack of intellectual property in the distributed ledger, and to commit parties in the distributed ledger to an apportionment of royalties for the aggregate stack of intellectual property. 
     
     
         6 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the smart contract further comprises a smart contract wrapper configured to process a commitment of a party to a contract term on the distributed ledger. 
     
     
         7 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises an instruction set. 
     
     
         8 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 7 , wherein the ledger management system is further configured to:
 provide provable access to the instruction set; and   execute the instruction set on a system,   wherein providing provable access comprises recording an access transaction in the distributed ledger.   
     
     
         9 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises executable algorithmic logic. 
     
     
         10 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises a three-dimensional (3D) printer instruction set. 
     
     
         11 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises an instruction set for a coating process. 
     
     
         12 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises an instruction set for a semiconductor fabrication process. 
     
     
         13 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises a firmware program. 
     
     
         14 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises an instruction set for a field-programmable gate array. 
     
     
         15 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises serverless code logic. 
     
     
         16 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises an instruction set for a crystal fabrication system. 
     
     
         17 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises an instruction set for a food preparation process. 
     
     
         18 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises an instruction set for a polymer production process. 
     
     
         19 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises an instruction set for a chemical synthesis process. 
     
     
         20 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises an instruction set for a biological production process. 
     
     
         21 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises a data set for a digital twin. 
     
     
         22 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the tokenized digital knowledge comprises an instruction set to perform a trade secret. 
     
     
         23 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the ledger management system is further configured to aggregate views of a trade secret into a chain that records which knowledge recipients of the plurality of parties have viewed the trade secret. 
     
     
         24 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , further comprising a reporting system configured to report an analytic result based on a plurality of operations performed on the distributed ledger, or on the tokenized digital knowledge. 
     
     
         25 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the smart contract system is further configured to aggregate a set of instructions, and wherein an operation on the distributed ledger comprises adding at least one instruction to a pre-existing set of instructions to provide a modified set of instructions. 
     
     
         26 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 25 , wherein the smart contract system is further configured to:
 manage allocation of instruction subsets to the distributed ledger; and   manage access to the instruction subsets.   
     
     
         27 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the ledger management system is further configured to log at least one of the plurality of parties who have contributed to the digital knowledge, and wherein logging the at least one of the plurality of parties comprises storing data related to the at least one of the plurality of parties in at least one of the plurality of cryptographically linked blocks of the distributed ledger. 
     
     
         28 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the smart contract system is further configured to log a source of an instance of the digital knowledge by storing data related to the source in at least one of the plurality of cryptographically linked blocks. 
     
     
         29 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the distributed ledger is further configured to enable a private network of authorized participants to establish a cryptography-based consensus requirement for verification of new cryptographically linked blocks to be added to the plurality of cryptographically linked blocks. 
     
     
         30 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the ledger management system further comprises a crowdsourcing module configured to obtain crowdsourced information to be added to a block of the plurality of cryptographically linked blocks. 
     
     
         31 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 30 , wherein the crowdsourced information comprises a review of an instance of the digital knowledge; and wherein the distributed ledger is further configured to store the review in the block of the plurality of cryptographically linked blocks. 
     
     
         32 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 30 , wherein the crowdsourced information further comprises a signature related to an instance of crowdsourced information; and wherein the ledger management system is further configured to store the signature in a block of the plurality of cryptographically linked blocks. 
     
     
         33 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 30 , wherein the crowdsourced information comprises a verification of an instance of the digital knowledge; and wherein the distributed ledger is further configured to store the verification in a block of the plurality of cryptographically linked blocks. 
     
     
         34 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the ledger management system is further configured to establish a plurality of cryptographic currency tokens configured to be tradeable among users of the distributed ledger. 
     
     
         35 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , further comprising an account management system in communication with the distributed ledger, the account management system configured to facilitate creation and management of a plurality of user accounts corresponding to a plurality of users of the knowledge distribution system. 
     
     
         36 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 35 , further comprising a user interface system in communication with the distributed ledger, the user interface system configured to present a user interface to a user of the knowledge distribution system, wherein the user interface enables the user to view data related to an instance of the digital knowledge. 
     
     
         37 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , further comprising a marketplace system in communication with the distributed ledger, the marketplace system configured to:
 establish and maintain a digital marketplace; and   visually present data corresponding to an instance of the digital knowledge to a user of the knowledge distribution system.   
     
     
         38 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , further comprising a knowledge datastore in communication with the distributed ledger, the knowledge datastore configured to store data related to the digital knowledge. 
     
     
         39 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , further comprising a client datastore in communication with the distributed ledger, wherein the client datastore is configured to store data related to a plurality of users of the knowledge distribution system. 
     
     
         40 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , further comprising a smart contract datastore in communication with the distributed ledger, wherein the smart contract datastore is configured to store data related to the smart contract. 
     
     
         41 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , further comprising a reporting system in communication with the distributed ledger, the reporting system configured to:
 analyze the tokenized digital knowledge, resulting in an analytic result; and   report the analytic result.   
     
     
         42 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein implementing the smart contract comprises using a parameterizable smart contract template to generate the smart contract. 
     
     
         43 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 1 , wherein the smart contract comprises a parameter based on a type of digital knowledge to be tokenized. 
     
     
         44 . The knowledge distribution system of  claim 43 , wherein the parameter comprises: a financial parameter, a royalty parameter, a usage parameter, and output produced parameter, and allocation of consideration parameter, an identity parameter, or an access condition parameter.