Proofbox Ensures Technically Robust Prior Art and Global Recognition.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of intellectual property (IP), the effectiveness of a defensive publication depends on several critical factors: compliance and guaranteed public accessibility, as well as their verifiability.

Today, we disclose some aspects of the technical architecture of Proofbox and show why our platform ensures standards for establishing prior art.

1. Guaranteed Discoverability: Metadata and Indexing

Proofbox addresses discoverability with a multi-layered SEO strategy:

• Archive Sitemap: Proofbox operates a dedicated sitemap for the archive. Each new publication triggers indexing, ensuring that internet disclosures in the Proofbox archive are globally discoverable via internet search and crawlers.
• Semantic SEO: We use structured data according to Schema.org for scientific articles. In this regard, each document is automatically classified by IPC classes, and relevant tags and keywords are generated and provided for each document.
• Unique URLs: Each disclosure receives a unique slug to ensure discoverability in connection with the sitemap automation.

2. Compliance of Paywalled Content

International jurisprudence is clear: payment does not impede the public character of a disclosure. The full contents of a disclosure lie behind the individual paywall of a publication and can still be viewed by any registered user when needed. In any case, this enables discreet disclosure, as competitor monitoring is actively prevented.

• EPO Standards: Requiring payment does not prevent a document from becoming prior art. Rather, the criteria for discoverability and availability of content must be observed, which are fulfilled for every publication via Proofbox.
• US Standards: Proofbox ensures that metadata is freely crawlable through data syndication, which supports the discoverability requirement in addition to the previously mentioned measures. This exceeds common minimum requirements.

3. The Archive: Platform-Independent Online Availability

To prevent the risk of a disappearing archive, Proofbox has implemented a specific infrastructure that ensures the availability of prior art documents and the entire archive itself:

• Decoupling: The archive is hosted on a highly available and independent instance on Amazon Web Services. This means the archive can be operated independently of the rest of the platform or outsourced entirely.
• Redundancy: The entire archive is backed up multiple times. The integrity of each document is ensured through technical means to leave no chance for later challenges.
• Integrity and Availability Checks: We maintain an auditable trail of availability through daily extension of a hash chain (blockchain). This logging is made available for each document of a user in the dashboard and serves as additional evidence alongside the respective document, which already contains a qualified eSeal from Proofbox.
• Availability Assurance: Additionally, we have contractually ensured that the archive remains available platform-independently and beyond the existence of Proofbox itself. Reserves have been set aside for the online availability of the decoupled archive, ensuring the third-party provider has the means to operate the archive for at least seven years.

4. Data Ownership

After each publication in the archive (and also after each purchase of a third-party publication):

• The signed document is made available to the user in the dashboard for download, and
• The document remains available in the dashboard for free and non-commercial use.

Summary
Proofbox is a source of prior art. The platform combines digital signatures with automated metadata preparation and an indexing engine. The model surpasses international standards for the public availability and discoverability of internet disclosures.