JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The IP pledge is one crucial mechanism of open source software (OSS) in which pledgers (inventors, scientists, firms, nonprofit organizations, software developers, etc.) make a commitment to donate or share their intellectual properties (IPs)—patents, copyrights, trademark, trade secret, and related forms—without suing the follow-up adopters to accelerate the speed and development of innovations and address important social issues (such as coronavirus disease-19) based on open innovation (OI). However, there are challenges that may impede the outcomes of IPs pledge, including IPs tracing obstructions, privatization of derivative arts, lack of robust IP protection, multipledged conditions rising the transaction cost, blocking the innovation diffusion of pledged IPs, and hardly analyzing the value of pledge IPs and its impact.

Objective:

Seldom do studies and practical management fill the gap of how to address large social issues efficiently and effectively by open pledge models?

Methods:

This paper attempts to fill this gap by referring to previous literature and practices by building a framework of IPs pledged in healthcare operating through blockchain and smart contract technology. This paper further adopts technology acceptance model (TAM) to design the platform mechanism to make inventors and pledgers are more willing to use the platform easily to facilitate the innovation diffusion.

Results:

This study builds a platform operated by blockchain and suggests that technology and invention transaction need to be managed embedded with a trust process and mechanism so that it can shape the virtuous circle of pledge innovations.

Conclusions:

Our results can stimulate researchers and practitioners to adopt a useful framework to facilitate innovation diffusion to address the unprecedented transformation of healthcare issues. Furthermore, it extends the integration of inventions from firm field to market field under OI literature context.