As technologies such as Artificial Intelligence gain momentum, it has become increasingly important to protect your ideas from wayward actors. However, the process of patenting intellectual property and hiring attorneys to protect this property is incredibly expensive and burdensome for most people.
Enter Easy IP, a patented blockchain-based smart contract solution aimed at entrepreneurs, brands, businesses, owners, and creators. Speaking at the recent London Blockchain Conference 2024, Kary Oberbrunner (Founder of Easy IP) explained that Easy IP is intellectual property protection that’s faster, cheaper, and easier.
Oberbrunner is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of more than a dozen books. As CEO of Igniting Souls and Blockchain Life, he helps authors, entrepreneurs, and influencers publish, protect, and promote their Intellectual Property and turn it into 18 income streams.
From an idea to intellectual property
Oberbrunner explained that many people have great ideas, but only some of them capitalise on these ideas and make them happen. ‘The word abracadabra means I create as I speak. Or it came to pass as it was spoken. But most of us know that when we have an idea, it takes a long time to get that idea implemented.’
‘We may have the idea, but then it may take months or years to put that idea into practice. So what most people do is they stop. They don’t do anything with their ideas. You probably have a lot of ideas that you’ve thought of, but you haven’t done much with them or the people who do move on with an idea. It becomes very, very expensive with time and money.’
Oberbrunner noted that it currently costs around $20,000 to patent an idea, while the process takes around one to three years. This all adds up to a lot of friction, he said. ‘There has to be a way that we can actually empower creative people to have an idea and then protect that idea instantaneously so that they can continue to build on that idea.’
Using blockchain to protect your idea
Oberbrunner explained that blockchain is a perfect solution because blockchain is a distributed digital ledger, meaning that everybody in the whole world on any device can see a smart contract.
He added that the Easy IP app is available for any smartphone and browser so that users can quickly and safely protect an idea and begin the process of turning it into intellectual property.
‘When people go to their Easy IP app, they literally just hit a button called Protect Media. And then they have the choice to either choose a photo, text or file. And with a few clicks, they simply protect that idea.
‘And then our team goes and essentially creates a smart contract around that – so it’s frictionless. Rather than taking $20,000 or one to three years, it happens in less than 24 hours and for about $97. We actually give everyone the first smart contract free so that they can try it out.’
The importance of protecting your intellectual property
‘The intellectual property of most businesses is spread out across multiple places and is held by multiple people,’ said Oberbrunner. ‘Worst still, most of these ideas are rarely formally protected – the equivalent of leaving a Monet or Picasso painting in the attic,’ he said.
‘And unless you can identify that Picasso when you go to sell your company someday or get investment rounds. Nobody will invest in you because they don’t know the value. But IP is actually the most valuable asset of any company.’
‘But with AI, intellectual property becomes even more of an issue because of the large language models, they’re tapping into everyone else’s IP and then essentially coming up with their own IP, which is really many times just copying. And so therefore, it’s very important that everyone, every human has a record of the timestamp of when that idea happened.’
