U.S. Patent 11212397 was awarded to KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc. on December 28, 2021 and is entitled “Image reading system, image forming system, and image reading method for dividing each area into blockchains.” The first named inventor is Naohiko Kosaka of Dublin, CA. The abstract contains an overview of the patent disclosure:

Provided is an image reading system that can disperse and improve the image quality of a document. The document reading unit reads a document page by page and outputs it as image data. The area classification unit classifies the read image data into area data for each content. The blockchain creation unit creates a block in which identification information is added to the classified area data, and sequentially calculates and includes the previous hash value of the previous block, thereby creating the blockchain of the document. The image processing unit in information processing apparatus processes or deletes the area data for each received block. The block acquisition unit acquires a block processed by the information processing apparatus. The document output unit collectively reconstructs the block that is acquired into document data and outputs the document data. Link to Full Patent

This blockchain patent was originally filed on June 30, 2020  as U.S. Patent Application 16/917703 at the United Stated Patent and Trademark Office. The application was them awarded a patent grant and published as U.S. Patent 11212397. The primary examiner was Negussie Worku.

KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc., who is the original assignee of this patent, has at least 4786 total granted patents in the United States as of the date of this article. This blockchain patent has been cited 0 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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