Blockchain For Intellectual Property Management In Biological Data: A Review
Keywords:
Blockchain Technology; Biological Data; Bioinformatics; Intellectual Property Rights; Data Provenance; Smart Contracts; Ethical Data GovernanceAbstract
High-throughput technology continues to rapidly advance the life sciences. As a result of these advances, large amounts of information have been generated as a result of this development. Examples include genomics (the complete set of DNA), transcriptomics (the a study of RNA), proteomics (the complete set of proteins) and other omics datasets. These datasets provide the basis for scientific discovery, bio-medical innovation and agriculture and biotechnology. These developments have resulted in the proliferation of large amounts of data for open sharing and collaboration between researchers, and increased the pace of research and innovation. However, with these advancements, major issues have been raised around the Intellectual Property Rights, including, but not limited to, ownership of datasets, authorship, provenance, misuse (unauthorised usage), and enforcement.
Intellectual Property Rights have been governed by the existing traditions of intellectual property systems, including patent system (exclusive rights to inventors), copyright (reproduction and distribution rights), trade secret (business operational knowledge) and databases rights (databases rights including the creators and users). These traditional systems were developed for static, centralised means of innovation, and have proven to be increasingly inadequate for managing biological data in a dynamic, distributed and digital environment.
Blockchain technology is one of the most promising technologies that may be used to address these IP challenges through its ability to provide decentralized, immutable, transparent, cryptographically secure and automatable smart contracts. This review analyzes the current literature on biological data management, intellectual property frameworks, and blockchain technology, to evaluate how blockchain technology can be utilized within the biological data ecosystem to create a secure and ethical approach to managing Intellectual Property. The current review synthesizes research in the areas of: Data Provenance Tracking; Ownership Verification; Secure Data Sharing; Licensing; Consent Management; and Benefit Sharing through Blockchain Systems. This study further highlights the legal uncertainties; limitations and areas for additional research on blockchain technologies within Bioinformatics.
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