TOEIC scores, Toyota’s intellectual property management, blockchain implementation examples accelerating with DX

Record TOEIC score on blockchain

The Institute for International Business Communication (IIBC), which implements and manages the TOEIC test in Japan, announced on the 31st that it will introduce a digital official certificate utilizing blockchain technology for TOEIC® Program public test scores.

According to IIBC, it will be the first time in Japan that a digital official certificate will be issued for a large-scale certification exam. Distribution of the digital official score certificate will start from the results of the public test conducted in April 2023.

With the introduction of blockchain technology, it is expected that TOEIC test scores will be digitized in a form that cannot be falsified, and that it will be possible to complete the submission of scores such as skill proofs when applying to companies only online, leading to improved convenience of the TOEIC. .

Prior to the introduction of digital official certificates, paper official certificates will be abolished from the public test in November 2023, and only digital official certificates will be issued. This reduces the paper resources required for official paper certificates and emissions associated with printing and mailing, and has the advantage of contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This initiative uses “CloudCerts®,” a blockchain-based digital certificate issuance service provided by CyberLinks Inc.

CloudCerts® conforms to the global standard “Blockcerts” for blockchain certificates. It ensures that the data has not been tampered with (integrity) and that it is linked to the issuer (authenticity).

With the adoption of CloudCerts®, encrypted official certificates are recorded on the blockchain, enabling the granting of digital official certificates that cannot be tampered with. Test takers and companies and schools that receive digital official certificates from test takers will be able to check their accurate TOEIC scores online.

Example of Toyota’s blockchain implementation

The move to incorporate digital official certificates for TOEIC scores using blockchain technology is the latest example of DX (digital transformation) that transforms companies using new technology.

DX became a buzzword in the wake of the 2020 corona shock, and the use of blockchain in addition to AI, IoT, big data, and XR (VR, AR) has suddenly attracted attention.

In October 2010, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stated in his policy statement that one of the goals of “investment in DX (digital transformation)” was to “expand the use of Web3 (distributed web) services.” This remark focused on expanding the use of Web3 services that utilize Metaverse and NFT.

Relation:Prime Minister Kishida “Promote efforts to expand the use of Web3 services”

Blockchain is called a distributed system, and security reliability is ensured by a mechanism in which network participants autonomously continue to share copies of transaction histories. These characteristics play an important role in the conversion of companies to DX.

In April 2022, Toyota Motor Corporation started trial operation of the digital transformation (DX) platform “Proof Chain of Evidence (PCE)” that utilizes blockchain technology for intellectual property management.

PCE starts with the preservation of electronic data for the proof of “prior use rights” to inventions as the first use case. By preserving the following information in a form that can be submitted as evidence in courts around the world (Japan, China, Europe, and the United States), we will strengthen our ability to respond to intellectual property lawsuits.

• When the electronic data existed (WHEN)
• In what order the electronic data existed (SEQUENCE)
• Has the electronic data been tampered with since it existed? (WHAT)
• Prove the above over 10 years (LONG-TERM)

A prior user’s right is a right granted to a person who, at the time of a patent application filed by another person, was working the invention pertaining to the patent application or was preparing for such a project. From the standpoint of protecting businesses with prior user rights, it is important to collect sufficient data from the research and development stage on technologies with high commercialization potential.

PCE uses the tampering detection function of the distributed ledger software “Scalar DL” provided by the start-up company Scalar. Built on Microsoft Azure.

In the future, in technological fields where competition is required, contamination of intellectual property, including know-how, will become a problem when conducting joint research and development with external companies. I plan to use it to avoid the situation where I don’t know what it is.

Relation:Prime Minister Kishida expresses desire to revitalize local regions using digital technology such as Metaverse in response to budget committee

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