ADMN: The Copyright & Trademark Solution for Cardano

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Mike Lerman

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

mike@admnapp.com

Additional applicants

Daniel Lerman

Teak Hernandez

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

12

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

Yes

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.” .

Dependency on the US Copyright Office and USPTO remaining intact, which seems fairly certain.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.”

Project will be fully open source.

[METADATA] Category of Proposal

dApp

[METADATA] SDG rating

SDG goals:

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

SDG subgoals:

Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030, significantly raise industry’s share of employment and gross domestic product, in line with national circumstances, and double its share in least developed countries

Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets

Support domestic technology development, research and innovation in developing countries, including by ensuring a conducive policy environment for, inter alia, industrial diversification and value addition to commodities

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

Proportion of small-scale industries in total industry value added

Universal Human Rights Index (UHRI):

#proposertoolsdg

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3f16OggCU

ADMN is a RealFi utility solution that aims to:

• Provides real legal copyright/trademark protection to creators, regardless of geolocation
• Give those creators a platform to license or sell their rights to others
• Convince governments to utilize blockchain technology - Dual registration with government & on-chain paves the way for the government to use Cardano NFTs for registration of intellectual property in the future
• Creates a possibility for automation of contract negotiation for content seekers looking to license rights legally
• Provides a framework for Cardano NFT projects to pay IP royalties to creators, and can be ecosystem friendly with other Cardano projects paying royalties for IP.

This is a tool for users to register their works with the US Copyright Office / US Patent and Trademark Office, while simultaneously creating an NFT on Cardano representing ownership.

The Cardano blockchain and ADMN IP NFT will be used to track the IP rights that can be transferred from one owner to the next, which means that ADMN will be updating government registrations when the NFT changes owners.

Our eventual roadmap item is to also create a licensing portal for these creators to shop out their works to those that would license it.

FAQ:

Q:Why the US Copyright/Patent Office? What if the users are outside of the US?

A: Anyone, regardless of their residing territory can register with the US Copyright office.

The same is true for the Patent Office, although that requires US legal counsel of which we will

procure.

Q: Why would people want to register their copyrights or trademarks in the way? Can't we just make the NFT as proof?

A: You could, but you could not sue for the income derived from your work- Without real legal copyright registration, you can only issue an 'injunction' which would stop the infringing party from continuing to exploit the work, but would not receive any income from the illegal sales.

This is why copyright/trademark protection is so important!

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

For the Cardano ecosystem this could:

• Bring creators of Intellectual Property to Cardano, who previously were only using traditional (Web2) registration systems to register their works, as well as tracking the rights on chain and automatically updating government records.
• Create the possibility to give NFT creators and blockchain brands a utility to license their trademarks and create liquidity.
• Provide a revenue share opportunity for other creative content projects in the Cardano ecosystem- Book Publishers, Music Marketplaces, Video Streaming Platforms
• Bring blockchain adoption to the greater public, by coming to Cardano to register and license works
• Create a market for trading IP rights on Cardano

This project is also committed to assisting with providing Intellectual Property infrastructure and having a social impact on territories and disadvantaged individuals.

We have joined the SIMBA Initiative (Social Impact Through Business Media Alliances) by SoundRig for this purpose:

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

1) The success of ADMN would mean that Intellectual Property registration and administration brings innovation and adoption to the Cardano ecosystem.

2) Additionally, the success of ADMN makes administering these rights more cost-effective to creators and licensors globally. Traditional competitors (Legal Zoom / Cosynd) charge a 30%-135% mark up for these services. Our goal is to price this service for 50% less than these competitors using Cardano.

3) Local governments have been slow to accept/utilize cost-effective and transparent blockchain technology for uses cases like Copyright and Trademark registration;

ADMN can provide a transitionary service to prepare for a future where the Cardano blockchain is included in government applications.

4) Each year, over 300 billion US dollars is spent globally in legal fees for copyright infringement!

Imagine if that money actually went to creators for new art or innovation instead.

Cardano could change these statistics on a positive way for creators with utilities like ADMN.

5) Assist individuals in territories without an infrastructure for Intellectual Property by providing an accessible method of IP ownership. The cost savings to an individual in one of these territories using our project includes having a US-based attorney to register their Trademarks, an expense those folks have never been able to obtain.

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

The initial goal is to give an automated path to registration of intellectual property to Cardano users that hold legal value.

We are excited to be able to update both the Catalyst stakeholders as well as the Cardano community as a whole as progress continues.

There will be value add partnership opportunities with music marketplaces, video streaming services, book publishers, record labels and more on Cardano, so hopefully we can pull the ecosystem together and foster innovation at a reduced cost compared to Web2 competitors.

Building the registration module will be the first item and this project will be tasked with updating NFT standards, (building on CIP-68) to include Copyright and Trademark attribute types and necessary additional fields to show proof of registration and various rights types, that will further cement Cardano with legal compliance.

This project can be a very viable business based on ROI from web2 competitors like Cosynd, that recently have had extremely profitable years in excess of 1M USD in revenue. We believe that this type of utility will not only lure Record Labels, Book Publishers and others to the Cardano ecosystem, but could bolster Cardano's NFT market.

Projected Volume in 2nd year (post-build and subject to change based on market conditions):

1K Copyright registrations ~103,000 ADA profit

75 Trademarks registrations ~ 12,931 ADA profit

5 B2B revenue sharing partnerships secured ~ 300,000 ADA profit

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

• We're willing to provide full transparency about our team (fully doxxed), and believe the scope of this project is well-fitted to combine our expertise.

• We have established accounting and development backgrounds to support this accountability.

• We're willing to provide periodic reports on our progress including KPIs and OKRs, as well as headwind reports and a retro after each milestone.

This project already has one signed Letter Of Intent from our first potential customer:

Project NEWM:

NEWM would like to enlist ADMN's Copyright Registration Service (if funded) as a value-add to their clientele in order for more creators to protect their musical works.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

ADMN_CREATE is our copyright and registration module. Completing the build, testing and launching the application will be the main goal to complete this mission, and milestones will be measured based on tasks achieved and tested:

Front-End UI

• Create Dashboard & Wallet Connection
• UI Collection mechanism of creator work details, staring with Sound Recording and Performing Arts copyright types
• Create secure decentralized database for submitted Works data

Back-End

• API to automate transmission of Works Data to government entity
• Back-end payment in fiat to government entity
• Get copyright metadata from government case ticket created for use in NFT metadata

Database

• API to send data for NFT creation / hosting on decentralized servers
• API to query data to display on UI dashboard
• Initializing licensing parameters in connection with collected data

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

Already in the pipeline:

• Back-End Interface to transmit creator and work data to US Copyright Office - built and being prototyped, Trademark module is also in progress.
• Website, Twitter and email service created

Months 1-3:

• Secure hiring positions
• Finish External Interface prototyping
• Define each Copyright rights type and associated variables for data to collect from end-user
• Define each Trademark rights type and associated variables for data to collect from end-user
• Create and structure decentralized database for works data
• Begin build for front-end UI to collect data from end-users

Months 4-7:

• Build API to transmit works data between back-end API and government entities
• Complete API specification
• Build blockchain connection to UI / database / API for NFT minting service
• Complete database build
• Launch Discord

Months 7-12

• Add wallet connections to UI
• Finish front-end UI
• UX updates
• Finish connection for NFT minting and hosting, payment compliance
• Test Registration Service
• LAUNCH ADMN_create

Due to the flexibility of this plan, ADMN will be able to serve two functions at the end of the 12 month funding round:

a) Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) registration for both Copyright and Trademark registrations and tracking

b) Business-To-Business (B2B) registrations for projects looking for a value-add to their creative customer-centric projects, using ADMN's registration API in a possible revenue share capacity.

We hope that the product solution provides value for not only creators on Cardano, but other projects in the ecosystem, which would mean research could later be done on further integrations:

Post-Catalyst Fund 10:

• Define licensing parameters and prepare automated contract service
• Build Licensing Portal, and define back-end database for licensing terms and NFTs
• Incorporate legal licenses into module
• Test Licensing Portal

Research considerations for future ecosystem integrations:

• Wallet connection integration research (additional features)
• Decentralized Identity integrations with regard to Intellectual Property
• Evolving Cardano NFT metadata standards
• Connecting with government officials to try and discuss blockchain opportunities for intellectual property filing

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Based on the above listed milestones:

• Month 1: Initial 130,000 ADA-

25K ADA - Completing Back-End Prototype for Trademark (Copyright already 75% complete)

75K ADA - Starting Front-End UI, this includes exception handling in a STG environment for 35-200 data points that need to be entered by the users and correctly added to the database - This piece is very important as the government office will deny registrations, if forms are not correctly populated.

30K ADA - Attaining Legal Counsel & Acquiring automated sign-off on Trademark registrations outside the US

This stage also includes assigning the objectives by hired position, establishing a sprint cadence for

sustainable building, and workflow readiness in accordance with legal counsel's recommendations.

• By end of month 3: 200,000 ADA -

- Updates CIP-68 proposal ready to include all facets of Copyright and Trademark registration data, as well licensing Terms

- Decentralized database configured to send and receive all works information from UI

- API spec defined and implemented for sending works to government site, paying for registration, and retrieving government application metadata for use in ADMN IP NFT to be minted

- API spec defined for tracking ADMN IP NFT if transferred to another owner for update to government registration based on new owner information

• By end of month 7: 175,000 ADA -

- The User Interface, External Interface and Back-end should be connected and able to process a

multitude of IP registrations.

- API updated to track government statuses of each application

- We will be begin to beta-testing the back-end connections to the database and

NFT minting process.

• By end of month 11: 195,000 ADA -

The UI should be complete and we will be Beta-Testing users should be able to connect their

wallets, register for copyright/trademark protection and receive an NFT containing metadata

from government authorities proving their ownership. The NFT will also be tracked if the owner decides to transfer their NFT/IP Rights to another user.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

Value can be measured by:

• Updating of CIP-68 metadat standard to include registration and licensing details of Copyright and Trademark
• Full legitimacy of IP ownership accessible by creators that is fully verified and trackable on the blockchain
• Jobs given to Cardano developers to complete the work
• Infrastructural foundation granted to the ecosystem provided by this work being completed
• Cost savings to creators by supplying a modern solution to protect their works
• Adoption brought by users and media companies requesting B2B solutions choosing a Cardano product instead of a traditional 'Web2' solution

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agreed to Fund10 rules and also that data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept