TRANSACTION-ENABLED SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR APPORTIONING ROYALTY WITH IP LICENSING

1 . A transaction-enabling system comprising:

a smart contract wrapper, wherein the smart contract wrapper is configured to:

access a distributed ledger comprising a plurality of intellectual property (IP) licensing terms corresponding to a plurality of IP assets;

interpret an access request value for the plurality of IP licensing terms, and, in response to the access request value, provide access to at least a portion of the plurality of IP licensing terms; and

commit a royalty generating entity providing the access request value to at least one of the plurality of IP licensing terms; and

a royalty apportionment wrapper structured to apportion royalties from the royalty generating entity to a plurality of owning entities in the distributed ledger in response to the at least one of the plurality of IP licensing terms.

2 . The transaction-enabling system of claim 1 , wherein the distributed ledger comprises at least one instruction set, and

wherein an operation on the distributed ledger provides provable access to the at least one instruction set.

3 . The transaction-enabling system of claim 1 , wherein the royalty apportionment wrapper is further structured to update, according to a rule, an apportionment of royalties upon an addition of a new IP asset to the plurality of IP assets.

4 . The transaction-enabling system of claim 2 , wherein the operation comprises a smart contract term operation.

5 . The transaction-enabling system of claim 4 , wherein the smart contract term operation comprises at least one feature selected from a list of features consisting of: provable access control, validation of terms, and tracking of utilization.

6 . The transaction-enabling system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of IP licensing terms each further comprise an attribute selected from a list of attributes consisting of: usage rights, fields of use, field exclusivity, partial exclusivity, pools, standard terms, technology transfer terms, performance-related rights, further obligations to a user, user selections, limitations, time frames, and royalty rates.

7 . The transaction-enabling system of claim 1 , further comprising a data store having a copy of the distributed ledger stored thereon, and wherein at least one of the plurality of IP assets further comprises a reference to the data store.

8 . A method, comprising:

accessing a distributed ledger comprising a plurality of intellectual property (IP) assets, and IP licensing terms corresponding to the plurality of IP assets;

interpreting an IP description value;

adding an apportionment of royalties to the IP licensing terms;

wherein at least one of the plurality of IP assets comprises at least one instruction set;

performing an operation on the distributed ledger to commit a party to at least one of the IP licensing terms, wherein the operation provides provable access to the at least one instruction set; and

apportioning royalties to a plurality of owning entities corresponding to the at least one IP asset of the plurality of IP assets in response to the at least one of the IP licensing terms.

9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising adding a new IP asset to the plurality of IP assets, and updating, according to a rule, an apportionment of royalties in response to an addition of the new IP asset.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising adjusting the plurality of owning entities, and updating the apportionment of royalties in response to the adjusting.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the adjusting comprises at least one of adding an entity, changing an entity, or removing an entity.

12 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the operation comprises at least one feature selected from a list of features consisting of: provable access control, validation of terms, and tracking of utilization.

13 . The method of claim 8 , wherein committing the party is via an IP transaction wrapper of the distributed ledger.

14 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising determining that at least one of the plurality of IP assets has expired, and updating the apportioning royalties in response to the determining that the at least one of the plurality of IP assets has expired.

15 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising determining that an owning entity corresponding to at least one of the plurality of IP assets has changed, and updating the apportioning royalties in response to a change of the owning entity.

16 . A transaction-enabling system comprising:

a smart contract wrapper, wherein the smart contract wrapper is configured to:

access a distributed ledger comprising a plurality of intellectual property (IP) licensing terms corresponding to a plurality of IP assets, wherein the IP licensing terms comprise an apportionment of royalties among a plurality of owning entities in the distributed ledger;

interpret 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;

wherein the smart contract wrapper provides an operation on the distributed ledger to commit a party to at least one of plurality of licensing terms via an IP transaction wrapper of the distributed ledger; and

a royalty apportionment wrapper structured to apportion royalties from at least one royalty generating element to a plurality of owning entities in response to IP licensing terms corresponding to a plurality of IP assets.

17 . The transaction-enabling system of claim 16 , wherein the royalty apportionment wrapper is further structured to update, according to a rule, the apportionment of royalties upon the addition of a new IP asset to the plurality of IP assets.

18 . The transaction-enabling system of claim 16 , wherein the at least one of the plurality of IP assets comprises at least one instruction set, and wherein the smart contract wrapper is further configured to provide an operation on the distributed ledger to provide provable access to the at least one instruction set.

19 . The transaction-enabling system of claim 16 , wherein the smart contract wrapper is further configured to provide a smart contract term operation on the distributed ledger, wherein the smart contract term operation comprises at least one feature selected from a list of features consisting of: provable access control, validation of terms, and tracking of utilization.

20 . The transaction-enabling system of claim 18 , wherein the smart contract wrapper is further configured to embed at least one IP licensing term for intellectual property in the distributed ledger, and to commit an executing party to the embedded at least one IP licensing term in response to an access operation to the at least one instruction set.