Patent Attorney and Founder
Hi everyone, I’m J.D. Houvener, and welcome to the Bold Today Show, where you, the inventor, entrepreneur, and business owner, can get your daily dose of inspiration to make the world a better place. Happy Monday, and welcome to a new series all about blockchain.
Hopefully, many of you have heard about blockchain, but I know it’s true that many of you are probably still wondering what it is, right? Cryptocurrency, blockchain—all this different buzz. But what is it about, and how can it affect you? This five-part series will hopefully get you at least thinking about some of that.
I wanted to start out today with one of the best resources I know about cryptocurrency. Just one version of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency is, of course, as you may have heard, the most popular version is Bitcoin. It’s a virtual currency that exists really without many paper or coins. Being able to touch it, its backbone is based on the technology of verification and ledgering. There’s a lot more to learn, and I’m just now starting this Academy.
In order to get this information to you, go to www.ardexamericas.com. It’s actually put together by one of my good colleagues, James Perry. He’s phenomenal and has a good background in developing education-based software. So, I’m actually just starting on the 101 System series today, and I want you to get started. That’s your challenge for today: to sign up. It’s free to start; this is the 101 section, and I want you to get involved and educate yourself.
The last thing you want to do is start speculating and investing in this cryptocurrency without understanding some of the back technology and what the forecasting and market are really trying to tell you.
What I also wanted to talk about today in regards to patent law is the number of filings. It’s amazing. There are probably thousands of applications that have been submitted, many of which we’re not able to see, but we know that in just the first couple of years, we’ve already got over 500 issued patents. Many of these patents are currently assigned and owned by big institutions that we know: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Apple—some of these institutions that have financial systems.
Let’s look at this first patent. This one is on a smart wallet, making sure that transactions between cryptocurrencies and individuals happen with validity and provide the right information to the ledger that backs up the blockchain technology.
This is an example of a patent. What I want to focus your attention on is the law we’ve talked about before in 37 CFR 1.98. This is a requirement to disclose. The inventor and the attorney must disclose all of their information about the prior art, meaning any reference they know of, anybody else doing anything like it while they’re submitting it. This is through the invention and disclosure process, and it’s through the IDS, which is a formal form submitted in this patent document.
You’ll see on the front page that there are only two references cited. While they searched high and low, all they could find were those two references that had filed or published anything related to this invention. It goes to show that this invention was quite novel when it was first filed way back in 2014.
If you’re brand new to cryptocurrency, please get started on that Crypto Startup Academy 101 class. I’m doing it too, so provide your comments in there and keep me up on your progress.
Have a good day, everyone, and thanks for tuning in to the Bold Today’s Show. I’m your host, J.D. Houvener Go big, go bold!