WISeKey launches IoT partnerships via the Trust Protocol Association to monetize its intellectual property (IP) portfolio, including both patent and data assets

WISeKey launches IoT partnerships via the Trust Protocol Association to monetize its intellectual property (IP) portfolio, including both patent and data assets

Geneva, Switzerland/New York, USA – December 14, 2020 – WISeKey International Holding Ltd. ("WISeKey” NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN), a leading cybersecurity IoT company, today announced the launch of IoT partnerships via the Trust Protocol Association to monetize its intellectual property (IP) portfolio, including both patent and data assets.

With a rich portfolio of more than 46 patent families, covering over 100 fundamental individual patents, and another 22 patents under review, Wisekey continues to expand its technology footprint in various domains including the design of secure chips powered with near field communication (NFC) technology, development of security firmware and backend software, secure management of data, improvement of security protocols between connected objects and advanced cryptography. The Company has filed strategic patents in U.S. which are essential to the digital transformation applications that are fueling the growth in the IoT market (see list patents https://www.wisekey.com/company/our-value-proposition/our-patents/).

For WISeKey, adding to its patent portfolio and intellectual property is key to ensuring that it remains a major player in the IoT industry for years to come, providing its customers with scientifically proven technology that differentiates and protects their products from counterfeiting, adds valuable supply-chain tracking features, and prevents the loss of sensitive enterprise and consumer data.

Digital transformation in the IoT market is opening up new applications that can improve the efficiencies of power grids, use NFC chips embedded on pharmaceutical labels to provide better quality healthcare, or secure autonomous vehicles but it’s also creating new security risks, each with its own set of challenges and consequences. Digital identities provided as part of the WISeKey Integrated Security Platforms act as the first line of defense in IoT security architectures by giving each object its own unique, immutable, identity that can be used for strong authentication of the device and encryption of sensitive data as it travels from the edge to the cloud. 

The purpose of the Trust Protocol Association is to establish a new Trust Protocol for the internet combining traditional Cryptographic Trust Models with distributed blockchain ledgers creating a new Global Trust platform.

The mission of the Association is to create an ecosystem of governmental, technology and business partners, each representing a node with the possibility to have multiple nodes per country.
Blockchain-based solutions aim to override the need for a central authority by distributing information previously held in a centralized repository across a network of participating nodes. While Blockchain is not owned by one individual or organization, anyone with an internet connection (and access, in the case of private Blockchains) can make use of it, help maintain and verify it. When a transaction is made on a Blockchain, it is added to a group of transactions, known as ‘blocks”. Each block of transactions is added to the database in a chronological, immutable chain. Each block is stamped with a unique cryptographic code, which ensures that records are not counterfeited or changed. The Blockchain approach lacks legal validity in most jurisdictions, which only recognize the digital signatures as equally valid that manuscript signatures when generated using traditional PKI technology.

The Trust Protocol Association is working with a number of members in USA, Asia MEA and Europe to deploy a fully compliant Trusted Health Passport using the WIShelter Version 2, a new application in the WISeID App ecosystem, designed to remediate risks during the global COVID-19 lockdown period. Using their digital identity secured by WISeKey, users will be able to geo-localize other certified users and stablish secure communications. If needed, the app allows users to prove to local authorities that they are respecting the stay at home recommendations. To ensure the data privacy, each user’s Personal Identifiable Information is kept encrypted and never disclosed without their consent. For more information visit: https://www.wisekey.com/press/wisekey-oiste-org-and-the-trust-protocol-association-to-help-health-organizations-deploy-a-covid-19-trusted-health-passport-on-the-blockchain/.

About WISeKey

WISeKey (NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN, NASDAQ: WKEY) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey microprocessors secure the pervasive computing shaping today’s Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.5 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens etc.).  WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.
Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKey’s Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust ("RoT”) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

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