ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,259,994, issued on March 25, was assigned to BurstiQ Inc. (Denver).

"Systems and methods for accessing digital assets in a blockchain using global consent contracts" was invented by Frank J. Ricotta Jr. (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Brian Jackson (Parker, Colo.), Tyson Henry (Castle Rock, Colo.) and Amber Hartley (Lakewood, Colo.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A consent block is a type of block that may be stored in a blockchain. Each consent block has an owner and may store an owner consent contract, i.e., a smart contract containing owner-specified access rules that determine who may access data assets that are stored in other blocks of ...