Excerpt from Enterprise Architecture Fundamentals:
***
By doing away with the differentiated natures of patented items (artifacts or modus operandi) and the patent itself (symbolic representation of the patented item), a new species of patented items has emerged:
- The first generation are crossbreeds, combining physical and symbolic items held together by patents.
- The second generation are digital hybrids of the first generation.
- The third generation are intelligent (or knowledgeable) hybrids.
For enterprises, the spreading of patented intelligent hybrids in value chains implies their reassessment in terms of open-source information (free to use), market prices (e.g., from data factories), proprietary information (traded), and internal prices (cf. chapter 10).
In addition to these advances on the symbolic side, digital hybrids open new perspectives on the physical one when combined with the Internet of things (IoT) and Cloud computing. The benefits for the traceability and authenticity of supply chains can be illustrated by crypto-anchors, microchips embedded in material flows which embody the concept of anchor employed in this book.
Significantly, advances on the symbolic and physical sides of digital hybrids can be combined through Blockchains and pave the way to an overhaul of patent regulations.
Blockchains are encrypted digital ledgers that can be used to track and authenticate the provenance of physical or symbolic artifacts without disclosing their innards; that technological specificity could be suitably applied to the untangling of patents and patented contents.
***