Innovation Ledger
What is the Innovation Ledger?
The Innovation Ledger is an append-only log of timestamped innovation records published under AIEP. Each entry is a structured artefact declaring that a specific piece of intellectual work existed, in a specific form, at a specific point in time.
It is not a patent register. It is not a copyright system. It is a provenance layer — a machine-readable record that answers: who created what, and when.
Why append-only?
The ledger is append-only by design. Entries cannot be modified or deleted after publication. This is what gives the ledger its evidentiary value:
- A later claim cannot retroactively alter an earlier record
- The hash of each entry is fixed at the time of writing
- A retriever can verify the entry has not changed since it was indexed
This makes the ledger useful as evidence — in IP disputes, audit trails, regulatory submissions, and AI training provenance.
Who writes to the ledger?
Any AIEP-registered publisher can write ledger entries. An entry is a JSON artefact of type AIEP_INNOVATION_LEDGER_ENTRY published in the Mirror under /.well-known/aiep/innovation-ledger/entries/.
Who reads the ledger?
| Reader | Use case |
|---|---|
| AI agents | Retrieve timestamped innovation claims with verified provenance |
| Auditors | Confirm a record existed before a given date |
| IP lawyers | Evidence of prior art or first disclosure |
| Regulators | Immutable compliance event trail |
| Researchers | Attributed, versioned knowledge artefacts |
What gets recorded?
Anything with intellectual provenance value:
- Protocol specifications and versions
- Schema definitions and changes
- Compliance declarations
- Research findings
- Technical architecture decisions
- Certificate issuances
Visibility
| Level | Meaning |
|---|---|
| PUBLIC | Full entry body is public |
| NDA | Entry summary is public; details are NDA-gated. A sealed hash is published to prove existence without disclosure. |
Relationship to patents
The ledger establishes prior art and disclosure timestamps — useful before, during, and after a patent application. It does not grant exclusive rights.
See the Patents page for information about AIEP’s own filings.
Machine interface
| Endpoint | Purpose |
|---|---|
/.well-known/aiep/innovation-ledger/index.json | Index of all ledger entries |
/.well-known/aiep/innovation-ledger/entries/ | Individual provenance record files |
See: Mirror · Schema Catalogue · Audit · Patents