According to a patent filing published November 13, 2018, by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), American print and digital documents solutions company Xerox has won a patent for a DLT-based auditing system that tracks revisions to electronic documents.
Increased Authenticity of Electronic Documents
Per the filing, the patent was initially filed on February 16, 2016. The patent explains a blockchain technology-based system for efficient and secure recording of changes made to electronic documents.
Any change made to an electronic document by an electronic device can be transmitted to a network shared by multiple systems. The network will take reference of an existing audit log chain to verify the changes made to the document. Staying true to the decentralized nature of blockchain technology, the audit log chain is shared among all the nodes on the network.
Once the new change is verified by a node, it adds a new block to the log chain using one-way hashes, thus making the chain irrefutable. In case an invalid block is identified on the log chain, one of the participating nodes will automatically trigger an auditing alert to the network.
In a nutshell, the new technology patented by Xerox keeps the complete history log of electronic documents, making it easier to identify any discrepancy with regard to any suspicious tampering. Xerox stated that the newly patented technology could be used extensively in sectors where record-keeping is of utmost importance, such as medical, finance, real estate, tax, and education.
The official filing also mentions the utility of the technology in criminal investigation records, including vital pieces of evidence like DNA test results, crime scene photographs, and interview notes.
The Race for Patents Heats Up
Blockchain technology has been one of the most searched words over the internet in recent times for a number of reasons.
The revolutionizing potential it offers is attracting companies from many industries to get ahead in the race by becoming one of the early adopters. This is especially evident by the increasing number of patents firms have been filing to reap the benefits of the technology.
Retail behemoth Walmart recently filed a patent with the USPTO for a blockchain-based delivery robot delivery system. BTCManager also reported on June 12, 2018, how Mastercard was awarded a patent for a DLT-based travel itinerary bidding system, which would help streamline travel for users.
