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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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What is blockchain technology?(see external academic references for the underlined words below for an explanation of the concept concerned) Blockchain is a technology for storing and transmitting events (“transactions”), secure (by methods of asymmetric cryptography), operating without a central control body and with all of the information, the register, made up of blocks of successive transactions of fixed size, is replicated (i.e. copied) in a decentralized manner and pair-à-pair, on a voluntary basis, on a large number of nodes (in simplified form, people who have downloaded the blockchain) active on the internet or on any other form of computer network. By extension, a blockchain (literally, a chain of blocks) also represents the tool for proving the exchange of information which can be accessed for the simple purpose of verifying it. A blockchain can therefore be compared to a ledger or a register open and accessible to all, pseudonymized, immutable and unfalsifiable.
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Why does the Ur-IP platform use blockchain technology?Ur-IP uses blockchain technology in the context of establishing proof of anticipation, because this technology offers, simultaneously: ease of use (you upload each file corresponding to each of your ideas in a few clicks and can even group several files linked to the same idea); speed of registration (a registration is carried out by Ur-IP for each of your ideas in just a few minutes; each certificate is then issued at the latest at 11:59 p.m. CET of the day during which it was requested); an extremely competitive cost and adapted to your needs and their evolution over time; an in(de)finite duration of protection, i.e. a potential eternity of each recording, as reflected and proven by each Ur-IP certificate. Exclusively, Ur-IP also makes it possible to diversify registrations (and therefore the corresponding certificates) on several blockchains, for example, in the case of the Intermediate, on the Solana and Ethereum blockchains, and, in the case of the offer Premium, on the Solana, Ethereum and Bitcoin* blockchains. (*) depending on the evolution over time of the aforementioned blockchains, Ur-IP reserves the right to add new blockchains to its offer, free of charge or for a fee, or to replace all or part of the blockchains used in the moment of conclusion of a subscription by other blockchains.
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What is the Ur-IP solution and how to create your member area?Ur-IP is an internet platform delivering proof (a certificate) establishing the anteriority of any idea/creation (artistic work such as texts/lyrics, audio recording, photo, plan, patent, drawing, file Excel, etc.) in order to help prove your quality as the creator of the idea in question. You thus have the guarantee that in the event of plagiarism or any other form of “theft” of your idea (counterfeiting, crude copying, adaptation, translation, broadcasting and/or unauthorized reproductions, etc.), this proof can be used. before any third party to demonstrate prior status as creator, author or holder of any other intellectual property right, in the event of a non-judicial commercial dispute, or before any judge in the event of a legal dispute. By using blockchain technology, Ur-IP can therefore guarantee the anteriority (potentially “authorship”, see below) of the creation of an idea or work, that is to say the imprint in time of all the information linked to this idea or this work such as for example the imprint of the file on which the idea is recorded, perpetually, or potentially for eternity. Legally, however, Ur-IP does not allow you to prove that you are really the creator of an idea (or the author of a work) at the time you decide to establish a certificate. On the other hand, Ur-IP allows you to demonstrate that at a given moment in time, you have indeed associated your identity with an idea (or a work). Thus, unlike a third party who would claim, after the establishment of your certificate, that you stole his idea, you have irrefutable proof that you knew the idea in question before him. You can create your member area on Ur-IP directly from the home page www.ur-ip.com< /a>.
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Why protect my idea/work with proof of prior art via blockchain technology rather than by other means?In addition to the very costly filing of patents and with the near impossibility of covering the entire territory of the world in this way, one of the traditional means used until now to obtain proof of prior art was to send to yourself, by registered mail*, either an envelope or a sealed package or at least well closed, in which appears the support of the idea concerned (photo, drawing, photocopy and/or USB key containing unpublished documents, CD-ROM, etc.) and to keep, in a safe place and indefinitely, the mail or package concerned so as to have it on hand in case of need, such as for example to present it to a judge so that the latter can open it and thus discover the proof of prior art concerned. The problem is that such a solution is both very impractical and expensive, since each time an idea or work is updated (such as a trade secret, a plan, or, etc.) or simply in the event of the creation of a new work, it involves franking a new registered letter, putting new seals (or any other means of closure additional to the gluing of the envelope) and the 'send again to the post office. At Ur-IP, even with the Basic subscription, you have the possibility of uploading an unlimited number of files per day (which you can also decide to delete once the certificate has been generated), and thus benefit from a potentially unlimited number of almost “ registered mail” for a reasonable single monthly cost. You are in reality limited only by the storage space available according to the subscription you have concluded with Ur-IP and always have the possibility to upgrade to a subscription offering higher storage space. (*) either a so-called “registered” mail in most countries, with or without necessarily the need to have an acknowledgment of receipt, the receipt received from the post office being authentic
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How are the files that I uploaded to the Ur-IP platform managed?Depending on your subscription, you benefit from dedicated disk space at Ur-IP. That being said, once you have generated a certificate (proof of anticipation) from a given file and if - and only if - you have kept an exact copy of this same file on your hard drive (this is i.e. perfectly identical to the original file, for example having used a duplication function), you then no longer need the file underlying your certificate in your customer area and can therefore delete it. Indeed, the fingerprint of the files having been created through the Ur-IP platform from your file will always be the same if it is generated from an exact copy of the original file. Thus, by always having at your disposal an exact copy of the file used to constitute the certificate, you will always be able to prove the anteriority of your contribution to this file, and therefore to the idea or work which therein figure. Consequently, Ur-IP does not keep any copies of your files when they are deleted from your customer area, you are solely responsible for any possible loss of proof of ancestry in the event that you have not kept a copy elsewhere. exact file on which this proof is based (certificate). By keeping one or more exact copies elsewhere, you always have the choice of keeping your files at Ur-IP, as additional security, or deciding to delete them from your customer area.
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Am I necessarily required to upload files from my computer to the Ur-IP platform to obtain a certificate (proof of precedence)?Not necessarily. For each file, a fingerprint is generated directly in the browser opened from the user's computer. These fingerprints ensure the integrity of files when they are uploaded and are also used to generate Ur-IP certificates. Thus, in the case of very large files (several hundred MB) or in the case of particularly confidential data, the Ur-IP platform allows you to share only the fingerprint of these files and not their content. Ur-IP recommends in all other cases to upload and keep your files on the platform in order to benefit from the best protection and all the features offered by Ur-IP.
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What should I do when my idea/work takes a long time to complete? Can I protect her in the meantime?Absolutely. When you write a text, you have the possibility to generate a certificate on version 1.0, then version 1.1, then version 1.2. etc. You have the possibility at any time to create proof of prior art for your work. So each improvement or update of your idea/work will be timestamped in the blockchain. This is also the right method to follow: it allows you to prove your contribution to the development of an idea/work, individual or collaborative (for example in the event of a dispute) throughout the duration of said development and until the completion of the idea/work concerned.
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And if so, can I modify it until I consider it complete?Yes, of course. This being said, the fingerprint which was created on the blockchain during the recording of the first proof of anticipation (and receipt of the corresponding certificate) can no longer be modified: it is now permanently recorded on the blockchain. In any case, you can always obtain a new certificate by submitting a new updated file as soon as you have modified your idea/work.
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If there are several creators/designers of an idea or authors of a work, can we still use Ur-IP to protect the creation in question?Absolutely. After uploading the source file and when generating the certificate, you have the possibility (and never the obligation) to indicate the percentages of ownership of all intellectual property rights linked to the uploaded work. p> This sharing of rights remains recorded in the blockchain at all times in accordance with the certificate you received, even when you decide to delete the source file from the Ur-IP platform. When rights change over time, the establishment of a new certificate will thus indicate the changes concerned over time. Example: Alice composed the lyrics of a song. She estimates her contribution at 75% of the royalties linked to the creation of this text and admits to having received 25% help from Bob. At the same time, Charlie composed and arranged the music with Dave (so they are 50% composers and arrangers each). Edmond ensured the artistic production (i.e. 100% of the musical production rights, i.e. mixing and mastering). For a single uploaded audio file, you will declare the following distribution in the Ur-IP platform: Ur-IP assumes no responsibility for misleading statements regarding intellectual property rights in connection with an idea or work for which a certificate is established via the platform. At Ur-IP, you engrave over time a declaration of ownership of intellectual property rights. Therefore, only you know whether you are engraving the real situation or not regarding the ownership of these rights.
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What information is contained in a certificate?(see external academic references for the underlined words below for an explanation of the concept concerned) The certificate issued by Ur-IP contains, cumulatively: information that you have, in fact, uploaded a file to the Ur-IP platform; the fact that this file has a name, a format and, where applicable, a specific duration (in the case of an audio and/or video file); information that in the case of co-creators, you have declared a particular distribution of intellectual property rights of the idea or work contained on the file; the various information relating to the life cycle of the work, that is to say the current version of the work, time-stamped in the blockchain, including in particular the date of creation of the file (before its upload to the Ur-IP platform), the date of creation of the hash representing the file and the date of registration of the block< /u>, on the blockchain, in which your hash is registered; finally, technical information allowing, if necessary, to prove the anteriority of all your declarations using one or more blockchain(s).
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Can I reconstruct the original file (pdf, mp3, xls, word, etc.) from my certificate?No. The certificate does not under any circumstances allow the original documents to be regenerated. It only represents a fingerprint of the file(s) that you have uploaded to the Ur-IP platform. Concerning a particular file, the certificate allows, however, to reconstruct its imprint on the blockchain in order to ensure that this file has not been modified.
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What is the probative value of my certificates at the global level?The proofs of anticipation (certificates) that you have generated via the Ur-IP platform are already de facto in the 181 signatory countries of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of November 19, 1984. This Convention provides in fact a “moral right” to claim authorship of any work and the right to oppose any mutilation, deformation or other modification of said work or any other attack which would be prejudicial to the work. ;honor or reputation of its author(s). Furthermore, independently of the Berne Convention, Ur-IP certificates represent a logical and irrefutable proof of anticipation that good faith allows to be admitted in any region of the world.
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Are my files and certificates still safe if Ur-IP were to cease to exist?Your certificates will always and at all times reflect the imprint of your original file (or an exact copy) on the blockchain, i.e. your proof of ancestry, regardless of whether Ur-IP survives or not.< /p>
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What if one of the blockchains used by Ur-IP stopped working?Due to the fact that the register of a blockchain is always copied to all the nodes that make up its network, the disappearance of a blockchain (i.e. the end of its maintenance and its use by the nodes that make up its network) n will not automatically erase its register, which will remain recorded on the hard disk of the old nodes (which still number at least in the thousands or tens of thousands on most blockchains). Finally, depending on your subscription, your imprint can be made on more than one blockchain, notably on the two most famous of them, Bitcoin and Ethereum, with the subscription Premium.
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What happens to my files and certificates if I cancel my subscription, or downgrade to a subscription with a lower amount of storage?If you cancel your subscription, it ends on the last day of the current month. Your customer area always exists, regardless of whether or not you have a subscription with Ur-IP. To the extent that you have obtained anticipation certificates in the past (either because you purchased them individually, or because you obtained them via one of the subscriptions offered by Ur-IP), you have still have access to your old certificates (which you have already received by email) and to your files, as long as you have not decided to delete them. Attention: after a period of inactivity of two years or if your termination results in the storage quota being exceeded (for example by canceling a subscription Premium or Intermediate to upgrade to a subscription Basic or to find yourself without a subscription), Ur-IP will automatically delete your oldest files until your storage corresponds to your new subscription, or, in the event that you do not have no more subscription, will grant you a period of time to save your files externally (if you have not already done so), at the end of which Ur-IP will actually destroy these files.
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What happens to my files and certificates if I delete my account?You can at any time decide to completely delete your customer area (i.e. your entire account, with your connection details). In such a case, Ur-IP will delete all of your personal data as well as all other data that you have entered in your customer area (i.e. for example, personal data relating to your co-creators, co-creators). -authors and other co-participants in your idea or work, but also any certificate not previously downloaded as well as any residual file on the basis of any certificate). If you request it, following the deletion of your account, Ur-IP will also send you a written declaration of total deletion of your personal data, in accordance with art. 17 GDPR* (see for example for Switzerland, in art. 32 al. 2 let. c et al. 4 of the new federal law of September 25, 2020 on data protection - LPD - up to date as of September 1, 2023), this provided that no exception provided for by law is applicable. Attention: all technical data linked to the fingerprints of the files in the blockchain, to the extent that they do not contain any personal data, encrypted or not (i.e. in particular the fingerprints attesting to the 'timestamp of a particular file in the blockchain), may be kept by Ur-IP. (*) Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data and repealing the Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation).
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