Back in 2013, I worked on a project in Vancouver, BC, called “FlyOver Canada”. The project was a 4D flying theater attraction akin to “Soarin’ Over California”, and in 2015 / 2016, our company www.crystalinsight.com did some work on the follow up attraction "FlyOver America". The rides are great... Like virtual reality, without the headset.
And of course there's wind, mist, and smells (the 4D aspect)... Nothing like a virtual flight over the ocean and being able to smell the sea air!
On March 18th, 2016, we filed a patent with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), for a “POST PRODUCTION PIPELINE PROCESS FOR EDITING AND MANIPULATING 180 DEGREE FOOTAGE FOR HALF-DOME THEATERS”. This is a post production pipeline process our company uses for 180-degree footage, to make films that end up on half-dome screens like the ones in flying theaters, as well as in virtual reality devices like the HTC Vive and Oculus headsets. Using this process, our company is able to streamline the post production of these films, and we felt it was important to file a patent to protect our business... you know, in the legacy world ;)
However, we had a challenge: Creating and filing patents is time consuming, complicated, and expensive. One can easily spend tens of Bitcoins and spend years applying for patents in multiple countries (BTC TODAY: $13,485 CAD ). What's worse, when you file a patent in Canada, it remains private for only 18 months, after which, it becomes available to the public via the CIPO website, for all the world to see, and potentially... COPY.
SO WE USED BITCOIN!
A few days after we registered the patent with CIPO, we registered it on the Bitcoin blockchain.
How does this work? Bitcoin allows anyone to record a small amount of data with each transaction. This means, that it's possible to register the hashes of files on the Bitcoin network, as a way to prove a particular file existed, at least as of the date the hash was recorded on the Bictoin blockchain. hashes are like digital fingerprints. Each file has a unique hash, and they are used to verify the integrity of a digital file.
We used a digital notary "Proof-of-Existence", and within minutes, we had mathematical proof that the PDF FOUND HERE, containing our invention, existed as of March 18th, 2016. And what's more, before March 18th, we had already registered pages of information leading up to the full patent application, meaning we had mathematical, irrefutable proof those ideas and pages existed, before March 18th, 2016, and before the patent registration on CIPO.
We had just used Bitcoin to protect our invention, in the legacy world, and it cost us just a couple of ol' fiat bucks, or a tiny bit of precious, priceless, Bitcoin, depending on who you ask.
You see... Bitcoin is like that almanac in "Back to the Future"... It might not look like much now... but just wait and see how valuable the information it contains becomes in the future. This is the power of Bitcoin.
And even if all the websites providing this service one day cease to exist, the transaction will still exist within the Bitcoin Blockchain... forever... or until every last node and copy of the Bitcoin blockhain cease to exist... Actually, it's also embedded in Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, etc, etc... all forks of Bitcoin that came after that date. Interesting.
And thanks to projects like Blockstream, copies of the Bitcoin blockchain are now in space, in satellites orbiting our Earth.
This in no way guarantees the patent is safe from being infringed upon, but as more and more people begin to use and understand Bitcoin and blockchain technology, we'll be able to go back in time and prove to anyone who might ask, that we came up with the invention first.
The patent is now available for public review on the CIPO website:
http://www.ic.gc.ca/opic-cipo/cpd/eng/patent/2924161/summary.html?query=rosales
and on the Blockchain:
Patent PDF March 18, 2016
Bitcoin Transaction: be082b7c180e9105d6d729e8fc8dfd795716e4d7e8199380092854d60966fda8
Claims PDF June 14th, 2017
Bitcoin Transaction: be082b7c180e9105d6d729e8fc8dfd795716e4d7e8199380092854d60966fda8
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