How can Blockchain technology support patent management? A systematic literature review

Patent management tasks involve many stakeholders from diverse disciplines and hierarchies as well as from inside and outside the organization. By drawing on the transaction cost and stakeholder theories, Blockchain technology offers new opportunities to rethink the way in which stakeholders are organized and collaborate. Although Blockchain technology receives considerable attention from both the public and academia, the question of how Blockchain technology leverages patent management in particular has so far been neglected, although it holds great promise. Consequently, this is what we choose to be our basic research question. In response to it, we conduct a systematic literature review, following a procedure in three steps. Out of an initial sample of 714 articles, we select 52 as being particularly relevant, and classify them in accordance with the dimensions of the 7D Patent Management Maturity Model. Three main foci regarding the use of Blockchain technology emerge – i.e. for the generation, the enforcement, and the exploitation of patents. This study contributes to scholarship and management by showing that Blockchain technology mitigates environmental and behavioral uncertainty, while stimulating new governance forms and business models by reorganizing or discarding stakeholders.