Writing legal Blockchain’s by design
(smart) contracts
Foreword on the OpenLaw tool
OpenLaw is a blockchain-based protocol for the creation and execution of legal agreements. Using OpenLaw, lawyers can more efficiently engage in transactional work and digitally sign and store legal agreements in a highly secure manner, all while leveraging next-generation blockchain-based smart contracts. Directly supported by Consensus, OpenLaw is open-source and accessible to all for free by allowing the creation from scratch or the use of existing agreement templates.
User experience building and managing brand licenses (KRYPTOSPHERE®)
After creating an account it is rather intuitive to understand the potential of the tool: many contracts are already accessible so that you can start creating your own either from scratch or by using several components of other existing contracts. My objective when using OpenLaw was to fully digitize the process of issuing and signing the KRYPTOSPHERE® brand licenses that I own. Thus, I chose to create this license of exploitation from scratch, knowing that only one other contract exists in French in the current OpenLaw database (consulted on 03/26/2020).
The writing of the contract was quite complex at first, but once the bases between the writing and the code language used were set, it remains quite intuitive and very easy to use through the user interface which is very user-friendly. The main complexity comes mainly from the numerous possibilities offered by OpenLaw which will make you likely to create very complex contracts but which are much more complex to achieve without more in-depth skills in computer development (especially if you want to link your contract to Smart Contracts).
Final results
In the end, by comparing the tedious system of face-to-face signing that has been in place until now within our KRYPTOSPHERE® project, this simple and automated digitization of a trademark license agreement, as well as its signing, storage and verification processes, ensures transparency and simplicity by design to the contractual relationship of the parties. Thus, each contract is anchored and linked to a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain which ensures a public and anonymous timestamp of the existence of this contract and its provisions.
A few points need to be clarified about electronic pieces of evidence in France concerning blockchain technology and especially through three questions that were addressed on February 27, 2020, during the 2020 conference cycle of the French Supreme Court on Blockchain and Evidence:
Does the blockchain have probative value, equivalent to an authentic act?
No, because it only provides proof of integrity (the blockchain does not presume the quality of the person who certified a document and therefore does not know how to prejudge the quality of the document).
Can blockchain evidence be used in court?
Yes, it is deemed probative (i.e. until proven otherwise). Its value is subject to the judge’s assessment (law n° 2000–230 of 13 March 2000 and within the meaning of the decree of 28 September 2017).
Does a convention of proof reinforce the value of blockchain evidence?
Yes, since it attests to an agreement between the parties on electronic writing.
Because the KRYPTOSPHERE® project currently has 5 antennas in France and thus several managers who change every year, it required to carry out several brand licensing contracts each year. By using OpenLaw and by anchoring each of these contracts via a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain (see link below), it makes this general process more transparent while keeping complete anonymity for its signatories.
Also, the non-disclosure agreements of all our members are processed through OpenLaw (without anchoring on blockchain for cost and simplicity reasons).
The article was written on 04/02/2020 by Thibault LB (bitcoin provable).
