U.S. Patent 10438170 was awarded to INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION on October 08, 2019 and is entitled “Blockchain for program code credit and programmer contribution in a collective.” The first named inventor is Clifford A. Pickover of Yorktown Heights, NY. The abstract contains an overview of the patent disclosure:

A system for producing a computer program code collaboratively using blockchain includes a plurality of computer nodes, the plurality of computer nodes forming a distributed network for collaborative work. Each of the computer nodes communicates directly with the others, and is operated by a user in accordance with a common smart contract. Contributions of each of the users are entered into the blockchain at respective computer nodes as blocks when transactions have been completed in accordance with the following steps: writing code for inclusion in said computer software program; submitting the code for the computer software program to the distributed network to complete a transaction to add a block with the code to the blockchain of the computer software program; detecting by the distributed network of the submission of code for the computer software program; and adding the code as a block to the blockchain of the computer software program. Link to Full Patent

This blockchain patent was originally filed on January 05, 2017  as U.S. Patent Application 15/399183 at the United Stated Patent and Trademark Office. The application was them awarded a patent grant and published as U.S. Patent 10438170. The primary examiner was Chameli Das.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, who is the original assignee of this patent, has at least 150818 total granted patents in the United States as of the date of this article. This blockchain patent has been cited 2 times by other U.S. patents according to our law firm research, and can be considered an innovative patent in the field of cryptocurrency and blockchain.

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