17 patents in this list

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Managing intellectual property royalties involves tracking complex payment streams across multiple jurisdictions, rights holders, and usage scenarios. In the music industry alone, a single song can generate over 900,000 micro-transactions per month across streaming platforms, while patent portfolios often require managing hundreds of renewal payments annually across dozens of countries.

The fundamental challenge lies in creating systems that can accurately track, calculate, and distribute royalty payments while maintaining transparency and reducing administrative overhead.

This page brings together solutions from recent research—including blockchain-based payment automation, AI-driven royalty auditing systems, smart contract frameworks for license management, and automated evaluation algorithms for fair pricing. These and other approaches focus on streamlining royalty administration while ensuring accurate compensation for rights holders.

1. System for Patent Annuity Management with Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts for Automated Payment Execution and Tracking

ERICH LAWSON SPANGENBERG, DANIEL LAWRENCE BORK, PASCAL ASSELOT, 2023

System for managing patent annuity payments and renewals using blockchain and smart contracts to automate and track patent renewals. The system provides automated patent verification, payment planning, cost optimization, funding options, and payment monitoring. It uses a blockchain network to securely store patent data, execute payments, and provide transparency. The system aims to prevent missed annuity payments and abandonment by providing a comprehensive platform to manage and fund global patent renewals.

2. Content Rights and Payments Management System Utilizing Unique Identifiers and Hierarchical Copyright Structure

ANIFIE, INC., 2023

Method for managing content rights and payments when creating and selling media derivatives. The method involves using unique identifiers to track relationships between primary and derivative content. A hierarchical copyright system is established for the primary and derivative works. When editing primary content to create derivatives, payments are made to the primary content authors. When selling derivatives, payments are made to both primary and derivative content authors.

3. System for Generating Investment Opportunities in Digital Asset Royalty Streams Based on User Entertainment Preferences

Harry L. Crisp, III, 2023

System for enabling users to invest in royalty streams associated with digital assets like entertainment content based on their existing entertainment preferences. The system accesses user's entertainment apps and data to identify preferred creators and assets. It then generates investment opportunities in those assets' royalty streams. This customized portfolio is displayed to the user who can make investments. The system handles the transactions and updates the user's investment portfolio. It aims to help users find and invest in royalty streams of assets they already enjoy, leveraging their existing entertainment choices.

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4. System for Managing Licensing and Royalty Distribution of Digital Music Services

MUSIC REPORTS, INC., 2023

Administering licenses for copyrighted music in digital music services to ensure compliance with copyright law and compensate rights holders. The system receives identifying information for sound recordings from a client music service. It matches the sound recording to associated musical compositions and evaluates licensing status. It secures licenses for any unlicensed compositions. It also tracks music usage and revenue for reporting and royalty calculations. The system then reports license status back to the client and requests royalty payments. Finally, it provides royalty statements and compensates the composition rights holders.

5. Transaction System with Smart Contract Wrapper for IP Licensing and Royalty Apportionment on Distributed Ledger

Strong Force TX Portfolio 2018, LLC, 2022

Transaction-enabling system that improves the machines that enable markets, including for increased efficiency, speed, reliability, and the like for participants in such markets. The system includes a smart contract wrapper, accessing a distributed ledger comprising a plurality of intellectual property (IP) licensing terms corresponding to a plurality of IP assets, interpreting an IP description value and an IP addition request; in response to the IP addition request and the IP description value, to add the apportionment of royalties corresponding to the IP description value; and committing an entity providing the access request value to at least one of the plurality of embedded contract terms.

6. Blockchain-Based System for Copyright Earnings Distribution Utilizing Virtual Resource Exchange

Advanced New Technologies Co., Ltd., 2021

Distributing copyright earnings on a blockchain provides an open and transparent way to distribute copyright payments to creators. The method uses blockchain virtual resources as a medium of exchange for copyright transfers. When a work is used, a portion of the earnings is paid to the publisher, and the rest is reserved as virtual resources for that work. These resources are then distributed to the nodes in the blockchain network that used the work.

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7. Blockchain System for Reward Allocation to Work Publishers via Consensus Mechanism

Advanced New Technologies Co., Ltd., 2021

Blockchain-based method and system for issuing rewards to work publishers on a copyright service platform. The method involves using a blockchain network where service nodes publish works and conduct copyright-related transfers using virtual resources. When a service node publishes a work, the network issues a reward to the node using a consensus mechanism. This increases the node's virtual resources in a transparent and tamper-proof manner recorded on the blockchain.

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8. Automated Evaluation System for Determining Fair Royalty Charges Using Algorithmic Analysis

JONAS BLOCK, 2021

Automated evaluation system that can charge a fair and reasonable royalty to a license seeker. The system includes an automated evaluation algorithm that allows the license seeker to check whether an exploitative offer is submitted to him and/or whether he is discriminated against by the offer.

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9. AI-Driven Platform for Automated Normalization and Categorization of Music Royalty Data

Rylti, LLC, 2020

Using AI and machine learning to automate and streamline music royalty audits, certification, and valuation in the music industry. The platform normalizes and regularizes data received in inconsistent formats to identify normalized royalty parameters through entity resolution. It provides a global industry data model to efficiently and completely identify all parties owed royalties. The platform also certifies machine-readable royalty data, processes outlier data from audits to discover insights, and uses AI to categorize royalty-related data into normalized parameters.

10. Automated Music Royalty Processing System with AI-Driven Data Normalization and Entity Resolution

Rylti, LLC, 2020

Automated system for auditing, verifying, and settling royalty and license fees in the music industry using AI and machine learning to reduce costs and improve accuracy. The system receives inconsistent royalty data from multiple sources in different formats, normalizes it through entity resolution and machine learning to identify consistent royalty parameters, and uses a global industry model to calculate and present royalty fees.

11. Blockchain-Based System for Decentralized Management of Intellectual Property Rights in Music Remixes

Dubset Media Holdings, Inc., 2019

Using blockchain technology to track and manage intellectual property rights for user-generated music mixes and remixes. The system allows creators to sample and remix music while ensuring proper licensing and rights clearance. It uses blockchain to create a decentralized registry of music rights and assets that can be accessed and managed by rights holders, DJs, and music platforms. This provides transparency, ownership control, and simplifies the process of licensing and distributing mixed music.

12. Digital Collaboration Platform with Integrated IP Management and Automated Revenue Distribution

BLACK BOX DIGITAL GUILD INC., 2019

Digital content collaboration platform that allows creators to work together, share IP ownership, and future revenue. The platform brings content creators together to collaborate on projects, allowing them to leverage each other's skills and assets. The collaboration platform facilitates projects, manages IP rights, tracks revenue, and automates payments to creators. It also provides tools like talent matching, analytics, and project workspaces.

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13. Blockchain-Based Decentralized System for Automated Intellectual Property Licensing Transactions

Wesley W. Whitmyer, JR., 2019

A decentralized system for licensing intellectual property (IP) using blockchain to facilitate transparent, efficient, and low-cost IP licensing without the need for lawyers or courts. The system allows IP owners to verify and list their IP on a blockchain-based platform. Licensors can view the listed IP along with the owners' payment addresses. When a licensor wants to license an IP, they initiate a payment to the owner's address using the platform. The blockchain records the license transaction. This provides a decentralized, automated, and transparent IP licensing marketplace that eliminates intermediaries and reduces costs compared to traditional IP licensing.

14. Web Portal for Customizable Display of Rights Management Data with Role-Based Access and Dynamic Data Translation

KTech Services Limited, 2019

A web portal for customizable user-centric display of royalty administration and rights management (RARM) data. The portal allows users to view their royalty earnings and account status based on their rights and access levels. The system retrieves RARM data from third-party sources, identifies key parameters, translates formats, allocates royalties, analyzes earnings, generates views, and displays the data tailored to each user's role. It also shows supplemental subsets when metrics or tests are satisfied.

15. System for Parsing and Conforming Income Statements to Standardized Format for Asset Matching

OLE MEDIA MANAGEMENT (GP) INC., 2018

Management of intellectual property rights and royalty payments associated with intellectual property assets. The management includes receiving statements from income sources, parse the statements such that the data is conformed to a common format, and with the data in a common format, the asset listings in the statements can be matched to the assets in the database.

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16. System for Dynamic Licensing of Intellectual Property with Bidirectional Transaction Inputs

OPTiM Corporation, 2018

Transacting a license of intellectual property with high flexibility by receiving information from each of the exhibitor, the purchaser, and the seller like stock trading. The transaction involves receiving input of information on a license of intellectual property and a selling price for the license from an exhibitor's terminal; a purchase receiving unit that receives input of a purchase price for the input information on the license of intellectual property from a purchaser's terminal; and a sales receiving unit that receives input of a sales price for a license of intellectual property to be sold among the exhibited licenses of the intellectual property from a seller's terminal if the purchaser becomes a seller.

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17. System for Processing Combination Rule Sets to Determine Contiguous Availability Periods of Intellectual Property Licenses Across Multiple Territories, Languages, and Rights

Glenn Barber, 2017

Determining the availability of intellectual property licenses for combined sets of territories, languages, and rights. Instead of reporting individual availability periods for each permutation of territory, language, and right, the invention allows defining combination rule sets and processing them to find periods where the entire combination is satisfied. This is useful because new licenses often require availability of all specified territories, languages, and rights at once. The invention involves expanding the combination rule set to all permutations, finding contiguous periods where each rule is satisfied, and concatenating those periods to create the overall availability result set.

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Various methods for streamlining revenue and royalties management are demonstrated in these patents. Certain operations, like patent renewals and royalty distribution, are being automated by means of blockchain technology. Others offer services for managing derivative content rights and auditing royalties tailored to particular sectors, such as music.