PriorMark
IP Protection
How It Works
PriorMark creates a permanent, tamper-proof record of your ideas the moment you submit — no wallets, no blockchain accounts, no technical knowledge required.
The full process
1
Describe your IP
Fill in your title, description, and any supporting files. On both paths, your description is encrypted with AES-256-GCM directly in your browser and included in your record file — it is never sent to our servers. For Proof of Priority, files are fingerprinted locally and never uploaded. For Proof + Secure Storage, files are also encrypted before upload.
2
Your content is fingerprinted
A SHA-3/512 hash is computed from your description in your browser. This hash — not the description itself — is what gets recorded on the ledger. Even a single character change produces a completely different hash, making the fingerprint tamper-proof.
3
The fingerprint is sealed on the public ledger
The hash — along with the exact timestamp — is written to the Hedera Consensus Service (HCS), a public distributed ledger. This record is immutable: it cannot be edited, deleted, or backdated by anyone, including us.
4
You receive a Certificate of Priority
You get a claim ID, the original hash, and a link to the public ledger entry. Anyone can independently verify that your content existed at that timestamp by recomputing the hash and checking it against the ledger record — without needing to trust us at all.
With Proof + Secure Storage
If you chose Proof + Secure Storage, one additional step happens after the fingerprint is recorded:
1
Encrypted files are stored in secure cloud storage
Your supporting files are encrypted with AES-256-GCM in your browser before upload. The encrypted files are stored in redundant, enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure. Because encryption happens before the files leave your browser, only you hold the key — we never have access to your content.
Your description is encrypted locally on both paths — it is included in your record file and never stored on our servers.
What this proof establishes
The ledger record proves that someone possessed a document whose content hashes to a specific value at a specific moment in time. Because hash functions are one-way, you cannot reverse-engineer the original idea from the hash — the ledger reveals nothing about your idea until you choose to disclose the content.
When you do disclose — in a dispute, to a potential partner, or to a buyer — you can demonstrate that your disclosed content produces the exact same hash that was recorded on the ledger at the timestamp, and that the timestamp predates any competing claim.
This is not a patent and does not replace legal counsel. It is a form of prior art evidence — a cryptographically strong timestamp you control and can produce on demand.
A public immutable ledger record can invalidate a later-filed patent for lack of novelty under US law (35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1)), European absolute novelty rules, and Chinese patent law — provided the disclosure predates the patent's priority date and is publicly accessible. Courts in France, China, and elsewhere have already accepted blockchain timestamps as valid prior art evidence. See court precedents →
Independent verification
Every claim links to its record on HashScan, the public Hedera block explorer. You can paste the transaction ID there and see the raw ledger entry — submitted timestamp, topic ID, and message — without any involvement from PriorMark.
To verify a claim yourself, you only need your original file and the fingerprint from the ledger. Compute SHA-3/512 on the file and compare. If it matches, the content is authentic and the timestamp is the ledger's. This works forever — no PriorMark account required.
Windows
Option 1 — Python (free, install from python.org). Open Command Prompt or PowerShell:
python -c "import hashlib; print('sha3-512:' + hashlib.sha3_512(open('C:\path\ o\yourfile.pdf','rb').read()).hexdigest())"
Option 2 — OpenSSL for Windows (download the free Win64 installer from slproweb.com, then open Command Prompt):
openssl dgst -sha3-512 yourfile.pdf # Compare the hex only — the output won't include the "sha3-512:" prefix
Option 3 — No install needed: open this SHA-3/512 tool in your browser, upload your file, and compare the result to the fingerprint on the ledger. Note: this sends your file to a third-party website — only use it for non-sensitive files.
macOS
Option 1 — Python (pre-installed on most Macs, or install from python.org). Open Terminal:
python3 -c "import hashlib; print('sha3-512:' + hashlib.sha3_512(open('/path/to/yourfile.pdf','rb').read()).hexdigest())"
Option 2 — OpenSSL via Homebrew (macOS ships with LibreSSL which does not support SHA-3; install the real OpenSSL first):
brew install openssl /opt/homebrew/opt/openssl/bin/openssl dgst -sha3-512 yourfile.pdf # Compare the hex only
Linux
OpenSSL (Ubuntu 22.04+ and most modern distros include OpenSSL 3 with SHA-3 support):
openssl dgst -sha3-512 yourfile.pdf # Compare the hex only # Or with Python: python3 -c "import hashlib; print('sha3-512:' + hashlib.sha3_512(open('yourfile.pdf','rb').read()).hexdigest())"
The output should match exactly what PriorMark recorded on the ledger. Your original files are your primary evidence — the ledger fingerprint proves they existed at that timestamp. Keep your files. No one can take away the proof.
Hedera Consensus Service — public, auditable, immutable
Secure cloud storage — redundant, encrypted at rest
SHA-3/512 — one-way, collision-resistant fingerprint