Patent is related to .Art’s “Digital Twin” offering.
Pictured: a .Art Certificate of Authenticity. The registry that runs .art has been granted a patent for using additional Whois fields for storing information about an object.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted patent number 10,805,263 (pdf) to UKCI Holdings Limited, operator of the .art domain name registry, for Domain name registry database.
The patent describes a method of storing identifying information for objects using additional registration data fields in Whois.
The .art registry offers a service that includes identifying characteristics of artwork in a domain’s Whois records. The registry provides a digital letter of authenticity for artwork via a domain name through a service it calls a “Digital Twin.” Digital Twin is a term used in the internet of things to describe a digital replica of a physical entity.
The registry describes the service as:
Digital Twin by .ART stores information about art objects in a way that provides evidence of provenance, real-time provenance tracking and increases an art object’s value. Leveraging the easy-to-understand technology of domain names, using an international standard for describing cultural objects developed the J. Paul Getty Trust, and offering the option of a blockchain connection, Digital Twin by .ART provides a sophisticated but easy-to-use art object identification tool.
An example .Art Digital Twin certificate can be found at ateliersovetski.art. .Art is also a top level domain connected to Ethereum Name Service, so the domain’s blockchain transactions can be tracked in ENS Whois.
The patent notes that the same concept can be applied to other items such as vintage autos.
UKCI Holdings Limited applied for the patent in June 2017 and it was granted today.
