Microsoft Secures Patent for Ledger-Independent Token Service

Microsoft, a leading American multinational corporation, won a blockchain-related patent in the US for a ledger-independent token service.

According to the latest update published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Microsoft received the patent for the implementation of a cross-chain token management system. Filed on 25 February 2019, Microsoft won the patent on 24 August 2021.

“US patent number 11,102,003 [Application Number 16/284,410] was granted by the patent office on 2021-08-24 for ledger-independent token service. This patent grant is currently assigned to MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC. The grantee listed for this patent is Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC. The invention is credited to Gregory Philip Cignavitch, John Marley Gray, Supriya Madhuram, Nayana Singh Patel,” USPTO mentioned in the official announcement.

Leading organizations in the US have increased blockchain-related patent applications significantly in the last few years due to a jump in the adoption of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. Earlier this month, Bank of America, one of the largest financial institutions in the US, announced that it received 227 patent approvals in H1 of 2021, including 8% blockchain-related patents.

Microsoft’s Blockchain Patent

In the recent update, USPTO highlighted that it granted the patent to Microsoft to apply ledger-independent token services. “Techniques for implementing a ledger-independent token service are provided. According to one set of embodiments, a computer system executing the service can receive, from a user, a request to create a token on a distributed ledger network. The computer system can further provide to the user one or more token templates, where each token template corresponds to a type of physical or digital asset and defines a set of one or more attributes and one or more control functions associated with the type,” USPTO mentioned.

“The computer system can then receive, from the user, a selection of a token template in the one or more token templates and create the token on the distributed ledger network, where the created token includes the set of one or more attributes and one or more control functions defined in the selected token template,” the government agency added.

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