Alibaba to integrate blockchain with its intellectual property system

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Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, plans to incorporate blockchain technology into its intellectual property system of global enterprises and brands.

According to local news outlet Sohu, Alibaba wants to create a system that will allow electronic deposits from international brands to directly link to the Internet Court through the blockchain-based Ali Intellectual Property Protection Platform (IPP Platform). This will provide a basis for right litigation protection.

Ali Xizhi, Alibaba’s director of intellectual property protection, said that the company is in the process of upgrading the filing of intellectual property rights by utilizing blockchain.

Alibaba plans to implement the technology fully in September. Following the implementation, the company wants to expand this solution to digital copyright protection, including visual content.

This new system will be an addition to China’s existing solutions for intellectual property. China already has three Internet courts in Hangzhou, Beijing, and Guangzhou that manages internet-related cases and allows plaintiffs to file their complaints online.

As a company, Alibaba has been a strong advocate for blockchain technology. Last year, the company’s subsidiary behind mobile payment services, Ant Financial received “definitive agreements” for $14 billion in investments from investors. The funds were aimed at increasing Alibaba’s technology and blockchain innovations.

In March, Alibaba, through its vice president Liu Song revealed the company was planning to implement blockchain technology for cross-border supply chains. In the announcement, the company explained that the solution was aimed to create a closed-loop ecological system that could be linked with local governments. By using blockchain technology, the company will get the means to track and protect transactions from the original purchase to its final destination at the doorstep of the business or consumer.

During the same period, Alibaba and Aerospace Information Co., a major software developer and provider, formed a partnership to take advantage of their brand technologies. The two want “to actively integrate resources and carry out in-depth cooperation” in the fields of cloud computing services, finance, and taxation, government affairs, and blockchain technology, among others.