A telecoms firm owned by American cloud communications company Vonage has been awarded a patent for using blockchain technology to secure communications and recordings. The patent was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on March 12. NewVoiceMedia, Ltd. — a cloud service company based in Basingstoke, England — has been granted a patent for “system and methods for tamper proof interaction recording and timestamping.” Specifically, the development represents a system for securely recording voice communications, such as phone calls, using a distributed blockchain network. The system is purportedly designed to streamline secure file creation, storage and access …

Multinational computing giant IBM is adding to its stack of blockchain patents with two new applications, the United States Patent and Trademark Office confirmed, publishing documents on March 5. According to one patent document, IBM now seeks to target network security using blockchain technology. A second patent focuses on database management using the tech. “Securing a data log using monitor security protocols may be accomplished with different levels of security, ranging from low security to high security, and have various combinations of hardware and software configurations,” the description of the first blockchain patent explains: “Low security may allow open access …

E-commerce giant Overstock.com’s cryptocurrency subsidiary tZERO has filed a patent for a “crypto integration platform” for trading digital assets. The patent was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Jan. 1. The patent filing describes a system that would be able to receive orders to trade “digital transactional items” — such as securities, tokens, digital shares, cash equivalents and digital assets — from broker-dealers and then translate the orders into crypto orders on a digital exchange. The platform reportedly aggregates various market data from cryptocurrency exchanges and “locate[s] the best price in the crypto market for the …

Major United States-based cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service Coinbase has withdrawn its application to trademark the term “BUIDL.” The official status of the application was changed to “abandoned” on Wednesday, Dec. 19, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) website. According to the USPTO’s records, the trademark application is no longer active due to Coinbase filing an express abandonment on Dec. 14. Coinbase first filed an application to trademark the term “BUIDL” on Oct. 2. The intentionally misspelled word “buidl” refers to a cryptocurrency community concept that implies building products as a way to support the industry, as …

American telecoms giant AT&T is seeking a patent for a blockchain-based social media history “map.” The patent application was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Dec. 13. AT&T’s patent application describes a blockchain-powered system that may include a transaction history controller to store subscribers’ data, which may be used for various purposes. The file outlines a number of particular cases, such as creating and sharing information, ideas, and career interests through virtual communities and networks. Broadly speaking, by deploying the system users could purportedly track “micro-culture transactions,” like tracing current trends at a particular time or place, …

Mastercard has filed a patent for a method of anonymizing transactions on a blockchain, according to an application published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Dec. 9. The filing outlines that “the use of one or more intermediary addresses to obscure the source and destination of funds in a blockchain transaction” can be used in order to “increase anonymity of entities associated with blockchain addresses.” The proposed technical solution would entail a series of “anonymization request[s]” designed to anonymize the transactions themselves, rather than just the user behind any individual wallet. This would “result in showing the …

A Russian court dedicated to intellectual property cases has successfully tested a blockchain network for storing copyright data. The technology was reportedly used for the first time in the judicial area in Russia, major Russian news agency TASS writes Monday, Dec. 3. According to TASS, the court recorded a change in a group of right holders, using a blockchain solution provided by Russian intellectual property startup IPChain. IPChain’s president Andrey Krichevsky claims this is a precedent for the Russian judicial system, calling the use of the tech “a definite breakthrough.” Krichevsky believes that blockchain could help increase interoperability in the …

American car manufacturing giant General Motors (GM) has filed a blockchain patent for a solution to manage data from autonomous vehicles. The patent application was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Nov. 29. GM’s application, first filed May 25, 2017, outlines a system for using blockchain to provide “secure” and “robust” data distribution and interoperable exchange between multiple automated vehicles and other entities, such as municipalities, regional authorities, and public facilities. While autonomous vehicles in particular require “high degrees of integrity” for “temporal event data,” the application emphasizes that a blockchain system is “desirable” for semi-autonomous and …

U.S. technology giant Intel has filed a new patent for “energy-efficient high-performance Bitcoin mining,” according to a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) filing published Nov. 27. The Intel patent is dedicated to a “hardware accelerator implementing SHA-256 hash using optimized data paths” and aims to reduce energy for Bitcoin (BTC) mining up to 15 percent, according to the publication. The documents states that “clusters of SHA engines may consume a lot of powers (e.g., at a rate of greater than 200 W),” adding: “Embodiments of the present disclosure include energy-efficient ASIC-based SHA engines that consume less power for Bitcoin …

On November 13, Amazon was granted two crypto-related patents. While the American e-commerce pioneer, with a revenue of over $177 billion, has not chosen to accept Bitcoin (BTC) and major altcoins as a payment option despite public interest and competitors’ experience, it has not ignored the subject altogether. In fact, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s cloud computing arm, has contributed to blockchain adoption. Amazon and cryptocurrencies: refusal to accept BTC, unfulfilled plans for Amazon Coin Amazon has a complex relationship with crypto. In April 2014, the e-commerce giant decided not to accept Bitcoin (BTC) citing customer preferences. Amazon payments …

The Bank of America (BoA) has won a patent for a system for enterprises to store customers’ crypto deposits, published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) yesterday, Nov. 13. The patent, first filed in mid-June 2014, outlines the background to the invention by stating that “as technology advances, financial transactions involving cryptocurrency have become more common,” and noting: “For some enterprises, it may be desirable to aggregate cryptocurrency deposited by customers in an enterprise account.” The patent filing outlines different interactions between customers’ crypto holdings and an enterprise account, with the latter functioning to securely store (or “aggregate”) …

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has awarded Xerox a patent for a blockchain-driven auditing system for electronic files, according to a patent filing published Nov. 13. Xerox — known for its eponymous printing and digital copying appliances — first filed the patent in August 2017. The patent describes a blockchain-based system for the secure recording of revisions made to electronic documents. The technology offered by Xerox can supposedly detect whether a file has been altered and tracks the history of changes made. Owing to the decentralized verification mechanism, the system thus becomes resistant to tampering, the filing states. …