According to documents released by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on April 23, the tech giant IBM has issued a patent on DLT-Supported data sharing and validation.

The platform has the ability to assemble particular information and supply it to the computer nodes in the system, and then later publish a verified incident event on a distributed ledger. This gathered data is then utilised to map information updates.

Its speculated that the nodes connected to the system would share information among multiple mobile devices with quick reliability and without any need of third-party. The document states:

“Connected objects can be sensed and/or controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, integrating connected physical objects into computer-based systems. Connected physical objects are uniquely identifiable through their embedded computing system, allowing the connected physical objects to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure.”

This patent is a continuation of a U.S. patent filed in November 2017, “Information Sharing Among Mobile Apparatus.” According to it, a computer-implemented method executed by a mobile apparatus for verifying shared event information is provided. The mobile apparatus communicates with a nearby mobile or immobile apparatus to generate an event existence proof in response to encountering the nearby mobile or immobile apparatus. The mobile apparatus verifies the existence of an incident event in response to arriving at a geographic location of the incident event. The mobile apparatus publishes a verified incident event to add to an distributed ledger for managing information corresponding to the incident event.

Many tech giants are now filing patents in the space of blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology.
Google: The blockchain patent has something to do with securing information stored in the cloud.

Bank of America: Bank of America holds the largest number of patents for the distributed ledger technology when compared to other companies.
IBM: According to Bloomberg, IBM is the 2nd world’s largest company with the most blockchain patents. It boasts at least 40 patents for blockchain. The company developed its own blockchain under the Hyperledger project started by the Linux Foundation. Mastercard: The President of MasterCard Operations & Technology, Edwin McLaughlin, claimed that the payment giant has 50 to 60 blockchain patents. His claims, however, are yet to be confirmed.

Microsoft: Azure, a cloud computing platform which developers use to create, deploy and manage their choice of the blockchain network. This is done through a global network of data centers.
Amazon: E-commerce giant Amazon filed a cryptocurrency-related cloud computing patent.Rumours that Amazon may soon be making a foray into the digital currency market have been circulating since last year.

Other companies such as Apple, Volkswagen, Alibaba, Toyota, and Goldman Sachs are also doing research in this terrain which is quite unfamiliar to them. CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed a strong desire to look into cryptocurrencies, encryption and other decentralized technologies.

It’s clear that blockchain is here to stay for a long time to come. As it provides increased transparency and security, this competition for issuing patents in blockchain space seems pretty good for the development of the blockchain technology overall.