COALA IP is a blockchain-ready IP licensing protocol developed by the COALA IP working group to create an open, interoperable, and extensible standard for intellectual property rights management. The protocol aims to leverage existing technologies like blockchain and IPFS to create an auditable system for tracking IP ownership and licensing. It uses a directed graph data model with JSON objects linked via IPLD and Merkle trees to represent things like authors, creations, manifestations, licenses, and ownership transfers in a way that is blockchain-agnostic and can be queried across ledgers. The working group has published a whitepaper and is working on a reference implementation to establish COALA IP as a community-driven open standard.

1. COALA Intellectual Property
A blockchain-ready IP licensing protocol

2. Tim Daubenschütz
@TimDaub
tim@bigchaindb.com
Blockchain IP Self-Sovereignty

3. http://spotifycalc.com

6. Submitted 70200 samples in a
single song to GEMA
1 sample = 1 GEMA form
⇒ 70200 forms delivered
Johannes Kreidler, “product placements” (2008)

7. Enter COALA IP

8. 2015: COALA group forms, meets 3-4 times a year
Fall 2015: COALA IP group forms
Fall 2016: Release of first draft COALA IP whitepaper
Present: Working on reference implementation

10. Icons made by Madebyoliver, freepik, Nice and Serious, Zlatko Najdenovski
Author

11. Icons made by Madebyoliver, freepik, Nice and Serious, Zlatko Najdenovski
Author Creation

12. Icons made by Madebyoliver, freepik, Nice and Serious, Zlatko Najdenovski
Author Creation Manifestation

13. Icons made by Madebyoliver, freepik, Nice and Serious, Zlatko Najdenovski
Author Creation Manifestation License

14. Icons made by Madebyoliver, freepik, Nice and Serious, Zlatko Najdenovski
Author Creation Manifestation License Distribution

15. COALA IP
Icons made by Madebyoliver, freepik, Nice and Serious
Attribution &
Provenance Licensing Distribution Verification

16. Goals
● Interoperable
● Extensible & future-proof
● Auditable
⇒ Leverage existing technologies as powerful baseline

17. Interoperable

18. Interoperability?

20. = URI-linking of JSON objects
{
"@type": { "/": "<IPLD hash to RDF-Schema of Creation>" },
"name”: “32 Campbell’s Soup Cans”,
“author”: { "/": "/ipdb/QmfMLNLyJZgv...y2oqP68Nd2PLhudmK" }
}

21. Blockchain-agnostic querying
Merkle tree implemented into JSON
>> ipld.resolve('/ipfs/QmfMLNLyJZgv...y2oqLhudmK/author')
>> {“givenNamen”: “Andy”,
“familyName”: “Warhol”}
= Merkle-linking of JSON obj.

22. = Cross ledger-transfers
payment = {"destinationAccount": "ethereum.pubnet.alice",
"destinationAmount": '1337',
"destinationMemo": {
"right": "/ipdb/QmfMLNLyJZgv...y2oqP68Nd2PLhudmK"
},
“executionCondition”: 'cc:0:3:47DEQpj8HBSa-_TImW-5JCeuQeRkm5NM...uFU:0',
“expiresAt”: (new Date(Date.now() + 10000)).toISOString()}
quote = client.quote(...)
client.sendQuotedPayment(quote, payment)

23. Extensible & future-proof

24. Extensible & future-proof
{
"@context": {"rdf": "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#",
"schema": "http://schema.org/"},
“@graph”: [{"@id": "<coalaip placeholder>/Manifestation",
"@type": "rdf:Property",
"schema:rangeIncludes": {"@id": "schema:CreativeWork"}}
]
}

25. Party / “Author”
{
"@type": { "/": "<hash pointing to RDF-Schema of Individual>" },
"givenName”: “Andy”,
“familyName”: “Warhol”,
“birthDate”: “1928-08-06”,
“deathDate”: “1987-02-22”
// and any other arbitrary meta data
// TDB: Let’s use an established identity protocol here
}
Icons made by Madebyoliver, freepik, Nice and Serious, Zlatko Najdenovski

26. Creation
{
"@type": { "/": "<hash pointing to RDF-Schema of Creation>" },
"name”: “Lord of the Rings”,
“author”: { "/": "<hash pointing to the Author>" }
}
Icons made by Madebyoliver, freepik, Nice and Serious, Zlatko Najdenovski

27. Manifestation
{ "@type": { "/": "<hash pointing to Schema of Manifestation>" },
"name": "The Fellowship of the Ring",
"creation": { "/": "<hash pointing to the Creation>" },
"digital_work": { "/": "<hash pointing to a media blob>" },
"locationCreated": "<URI pointing to a Place object>"
}
Icons made by Madebyoliver, freepik, Nice and Serious, Zlatko Najdenovski

28. DigitalFingerprint
{
"@context": { "/": "<hash pointing to COALA IP's context>" },
"@type": "DigitalFingerprint",
"fingerprintOf": "<hash pointing to a media blob>",
"fingerprint": "Qmbs2DxMBraF3U8F7vLAarGmZaSFry3vVY5zytuN3BxwaY"
}
Icons made by Madebyoliver, freepik, Nice and Serious, Zlatko Najdenovski

29. Icon made by Madebyoliver

30. Right / ”License”
{ "@type": { "/": "<hash pointing to RDF-Schema of Right>" },
“usages”: “all|copy|play|stream|...”,
“territory”: { “/”: “<hash pointing to a Place>” },
“context”: “inflight|inpublic|commercialuse…”,
“exclusive”: true|false,
...
"manifestation": { "/": "<hash pointing to the Manifestation>" },
"license": { "/": "<link/hash pointing to the License>" }
}
Icons made by Madebyoliver, freepik, Nice and Serious, Zlatko Najdenovski

31. Right / ”License”
{ "@type": { "/": "<hash pointing to RDF-Schema of Right>" },
“usages”: “all|copy|play|stream|...”,
“territory”: { “/”: “<hash pointing to a Place>” },
“context”: “inflight|inpublic|commercialuse…”,
“exclusive”: true|false,
...
"manifestation": { "/": "<hash pointing to the Manifestation>" },
"license": "https://www.ascribe.io/terms#transferring+editions"
}
Icons made by Madebyoliver, freepik, Nice and Serious, Zlatko Najdenovski

33. RightAssignment / “Blockchain-Transfer”
{
"@context": { "/": "<hash pointing to COALA IP's context>" },
"@type": "RightsTransferAction",
"transferContract": [
{ "/": "<hash pointing to a file on e.g. IPFS>" },
{ "@value": "<Contract text>" }
]
}

34. (J.K Rowling)
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36. Auditable

37. Auditable
Author: “Andy Warhol”
Creation: “32 Campbell’s Soup
Cans”
Manifestation: “32 Campbell’s
Soup Cans” Poster
Right: License Manifestation
under License “X”
Creation: “The Scream”
manifestation
creationauthor
author

38. Auditable
Author: “Andy Warhol”
Creation: “32 Campbell’s Soup
Cans”
Manifestation: “32 Campbell’s
Soup Cans” Poster
Right: License Manifestation
under License “X”
Organization: “MoMA, NYC”
Creation: “The Scream”
Assertion: “Correct!”
author
manifestation
creationauthor
author
toAssert

39. Auditable
Author: “Andy Warhol”
Creation: “32 Campbell’s Soup
Cans”
Manifestation: “32 Campbell’s
Soup Cans” Poster
Right: License Manifestation
under License “X”
Organization: “MoMA, NYC”
Creation: “The Scream”
Assertion: “Incorrect!”Assertion: “Correct!”
author
author
toAsserttoAssert
manifestation
creationauthor
author

40. Challenges

41. Directed graph: unreachable nodes?
Discovery?
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42. Directed graph: unreachable nodes?
● Graph search algorithms
● BlockchainQL
● External indices
Icons made by Madebyoliver, freepik, Nice and Serious, Zlatko Najdenovski

43. Interledger: Only fungible assets
=
≠

45. The missing link: identity

46. “Principles of self-sovereign identity”
● Existence: Connect “I” with its
aspects
● Control: User is in full control,
always
● Access: User has full access,
always
● Transparency: “Systems are
FOSS”
● Persistence: ID is long-lived
● Portability: USA ⇔ Canada
● Interoperability: Many systems,
one standard
● Consent: User agrees to usage
of data
● Minimalization: Data disclosure
is minimal
● Protection: User’s rights must
be protected

47. Summary

48. COALA IP
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Attribution &
Provenance Licensing Distribution Verification
● Community-driven data
models
● branch-specific data
● open IP protocol of
license transactions
● Web of Trust

49. coalaip.org
coalaip/specification
(CC Attribution 4.0)
bigchaindb/py-coalaip
(Apache 2.0)
bigchaindb/pycoalaip-bi
gchaindb (Apache 2.0)
ipdb.foundation

50. Thanks for your attention!
Interested? Contact me: tim@bigchaindb.com or @TimDaub