3D Digital Design Authentication Platform

NOTTINK——Blockchain enabled 3DP watermarking encryption and authentication platform

Project background

There is a trend in digital manufacturing which deserves worldwide attention. As a representative prototype from digital manufacturing, 3D printing technologies (hereafter 3DP) have the potential to stimulate changes in the current global value chain in production and manufacturing, and even in the international landscape of economics and trade. 3DP, also known as additive manufacturing or direct digital manufacturing, is based on a digital model that assembles materials layer by layer to create a physical object. It reflects the close collaboration of information network technology, advanced material technology and digital manufacturing technology, and is an important part of intelligent manufacturing.

The 3DP process is digital in nature, thus it is much easier to “steal” digital product designs and then reproduce them in small batches than to do so with their analogue counterparts. The ubiquity of the Internet and the widespread use of information and communications technologies (ICT) enable owners of printable content to upload files to the Internet, from where individuals or companies can download the files for free. After that, it is easy to redesign the downloaded content and print out the product. This means that a newly-printed product can enter the market immediately. Even a product covered by a legitimate patent, trademark or copyright can be scanned and sold directly. While large companies have the capability to trace the source of printed copies, it is challenging for small and medium-sized enterprises to do so. The current popularity of e-commerce makes the situation more complicated. When infringing products are sold via e-commerce channels (e.g., e-Bay or China's Taobao), it is difficult for intellectual property owners to trace their source.

From previous market investigation outcomes, many 3DP companies using 3DP systems are seeking new ways to create and disseminate 3DP content and capture new business opportunities. However, a lack of appropriate digital licensing standards, a complex legal licensing environment, and the risk of being held responsible for infringements by users have severely limited these companies’ ability to derive commercial value from 3DP. In this regard, the protection of copyright objects seems to offer a more viable and proactive approach. Certainly, many firms already respect intellectual property rights, for instance by paying required license fees. However, in the Internet environment, users may often be unable to identify true IP owners. Moreover, the extant anti-counterfeiting technology of 3DP models suffers from the following limitations: first, not all digital files of 3DP models are in the triangular network format; second, the watermark information embedded in 3D digital mesh files is lost after printing and manufacture, so it is impossible to authenticate the physical model. Thus, there needs a more efficient encryption and authentication solutions for 3DP IPR protection.

Our aims

• The remarkable knowledge exchange: the verified demand for IPR protection and authentication of 3D printing digital model.

Firstly. Through visits to industrial parks, enterprises and themed seminars, the project team had extensive exchanges and discussions with 3D printing industry and IPR practitioners on the IPR protection of 3D printing digital models. At present, the intellectual property protection of 3D printing digital models is still in its infancy. The intellectual property industry has long suffered from the time consumed to authorising the rights, the difficulties to realising the profit and the low efficiency of protecting the rights; With the development of digital economy, the huge increase of electronic data and its characteristics such as being easy to be tampered and lost and relying on electronic devices make it very difficult to store as intellectual property certificate. The openness of the Internet, and the capabilities offered by 3D printing for co-creation, sharing and co-ownership, intensifies the difficulty of obtaining evidence and accountability for intellectual property. In addition, lack of relevant laws and regulations, and the awareness of protection and rights protection.

Our interviewees often said that there is a need for IPR and authentication of 3D printing digital models, but at the same time, they also need a sound and institutionalised application of matching encryption, authentication, protection and right confirmation mechanisms and methods. The expected outcome of this project is to integrate innovative blockchain technology and accelerate the development of convenient and easy-to-use 3D printing authentication platform system on the basis of the patented technology. This concept has been widely recognised by our interviewees and seminar participants.

• Platform construction: NOTTINK- Blockchain enabled 3DP watermarking encryption and authentication platform

With deeply exploring the requirements of IPR protection issue in the 3DP industry, then we provide a reliable 3DP encryption and authentication platform for the targeted user based on patented 3DP watermarking technology. Taking advantage of its systematisation and integration, the proposed platform can provide such services as: 3DP watermarking encryption; 3DP finished product attribution and authentication; 3DP data storage; 3DP digital model design file trading, etc. This project will combine the advantages of patent technology and blockchain technology to provide a platform for the identification, storage and trading of 3D printed digital models of relevant enterprises.

On the one hand, it can protect the IPR of 3D designs and identify the printed physical models as anticounterfeit, and on the other hand, it can guarantee the integrity and consistency of the authentication data by using blockchain technology. At the same time, it makes full use of the advantages of platform, systemisation and process, and integrates 3D printing service providers to provide users with a convenient, reliable and accurate 3D printing identification platform.

The project aims not only to protect the originality of users' 3DP digital designs, but also to fully address the pain points of 3DP digital model authentication and IP protection, such as the high cost of enterprise authentication, and issues of evidence preservation and identification. It will therefore save companies the cost and time of IP authentication of digital models, and will further stimulate the value-innovation and creativity of the entire 3DP industry. Equally, it will promote the introduction and implementation of supervision and standards for digital IP assets, making all stakeholders in the industry more self-disciplined, and thereby promoting the protection of digital IP assets at the national level.

The project will actively explore the way on future commercialisation. From the perspective of the platform, we will focus on the encryption and authentication business of 3D printing digital model, and expand the categories of encryption products and multiple authentication objects; At the same time, the application scenarios as well. We may also plan on designing relevant training course and customised services. From the perspective of the marketisation and subsequent operation mode of the platform, we will actively connect with the school incubation team and participate in the relevant technology transfer demand match-making meetings and Industry-Education-Research cooperation events. We will also reach out to relevant industry alliances and industry associations as the main promotion channels for promoting it to firms, and the future cooperation and operation modes are discussed with the mainstream 3D printing service platforms.

PI (Team Leader)

Prof. Hing Kai Chan

Acting Associate Dean, Professor of Operations Management

Nottingham University Business School China

Responsibility: Project leading, Outcomes supervision, Team members recruitment

CI

Dr. James Griffin

Associate Professor

University of Exeter Law School, Intellectual Property laws upon digital technology

Responsibility: Law and IPR consulting

CI

Dr. Lei Hao

Teaching Fellow

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Responsibility: block chain techonology consulting

Project manager

Dr. Fangli Zeng

Assistant professor

Zhejiang Wanli University

Responsibility: Project management, business relationship development

Project member

Min Guo

PhD candidate in operation management

Responsibility: Platform design and development, product management

Project member

Tian Xiao

PhD candidate in Corporate social responsibility

Responsibility: Project assistance, documentation

Project member

Ying Chen

PhD candidate in Digital platform development

Responsibility: Project assistance

This platform project is mainly based on the AHRC-funded project A Technological Licensing Framework for 3D Printed Content: A Focus on China via the AHRC Centre for Digital And IP Research in China. The Centre is permitted to award AHRC projects through a competitive process. In that project we developed a watermarking technology for 3DP and developed it into a more mature technology by making it easier to apply to creative 3DP works. Details of our technology technique were published in several papers and in a book: Intellectual Property Rights and Emerging Technology: 3D Printing in China (Reference: Chan, H. K., Choo, H. L., & Osuji, O. (2018). Intellectual Property Rights and Emerging Technology. Routledge.), and the technology has been patented. This follow-on proposal will take that research and apply it directly within the marketplace. By establishing the platform, expanding the application scenarios, holding or participating in relevant conferences and designing training courses, this project will directly promote the commercialisation of this patented technology and strengthen the protection and dissemination of digital models of 3DP innovation designs.

The platform intends to build a 3D printing authentication platform and industry ecosystem based on the patented 3D printing watermarking technology, so that it can provide enterprises with a 3D printing authentication service platform to protect the IPRs of 3D printing products in ways that easy-to-use, accurate and worry-free; fill the gap in the industrial market with a platform that covering multiple product authentication services based on the 3D printing authentication and help promoting the standardisation of the 3D printing industry and the process of national digital asset intellectual property protection. We wish to promote the standardisation 3D printing digital model authentication industry in China, advance the process of national 3D printing digital model property rights protection, and accelerate the formulation of relevant government intellectual property rights protection policies and legislation.

The platform has deep 3D printing association cooperation links, and active communication and cooperation with the industry, not only to ensure 3D digital model intellectual property rights, but also to create opportunities for the promotion of design results, and stimulate the potential of future cooperation scenarios, to fully encourage the design innovation and dissemination of 3D printed products. We will later open the corresponding encryption authentication standardization API interface. We welcome companies and practitioners in the 3D printing industry to collaborate with our platform.

The project is funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC): “A Technological Licensing Framework for 3D Printed Content: A Focus on China via the AHRC Centre for Digital And IP Research in China.” and "Designing the Authentication Platform based on the Patented 3D Printing Digital Watermarking Technology and Blockchain Technology" funded by the Li Dak Sum Innovation Fellowship.