Methods and systems enabling product data search within decentral networks

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to the field of data search within decentral systems for product data associated with product(s) produced or producible by a production. The disclosure relates to methods, apparatuses and computer-elements for generating output product data to be published in a decentral network by a data providing service configured to provide the output product data in response to a request for such output product data. The disclosure further relates to methods, apparatuses and computer-elements for generating a search index from public output product data associated with output product(s) and received via a decentral network from public output product data provider(s) and methods, services and computer-elements for returning public output product data associated with output product(s) based on such search index. The disclosure further relates to methods, apparatuses and computer-elements for controlling access to output product data associated with output product(s) via a decentral network. The disclosure further relates to a use of the output product data published according to the present disclosure and to an output product associated with output product data published according to the present disclosure.

Description

[0001] 240625

[0002] METHODS AND SYSTEMS ENABLING PRODUCT DATA SEARCH WITHIN DECENTRAL NETWORKS

[0003] TECHNICAL FIELD

[0004] The present disclosure relates to the field of data search within decentral systems for product data associated with product(s) produced or producible by a production. The disclosure relates to methods, apparatuses and computer-elements for generating output product data to be published in a decentral network by a data providing service configured to provide the output product data in response to a request for such output product data. The disclosure further relates to methods, apparatuses and computer-elements for generating a search index from public output product data associated with output product(s) and received via a decentral network from public output product data provider(s) and methods, services and computer-elements for returning public output product data associated with output product(s) based on such search index. The disclosure further relates to methods, apparatuses and computer-elements for controlling access to output product data associated with output product(s) via a decentral network. The disclosure further relates to a use of the output product data published according to the present disclosure to further process the output product associated with the published output product data and / or to access output product data associated with the published output product data from a data owner of the output product data. The disclosure further relates to an output product associated with output product data published according to the present disclosure.

[0005] TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

[0006] Conventional data search on centralized networks relies on pre-compiled indices resulting from crawling existing web content, raising privacy concerns and limiting control over data visibility. Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks offer a decentralized alternative, but lack efficient search mechanisms since indices of data assets available for sharing within the decentral network can only be compiled under mutual consent of data provider and data consumer.

[0007] SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] Disclosed is in one aspect a method for generating output product data to be published in a decentral network by a decentral data providing node configured to provide the output product data in response to a request for such output product data, wherein the output product data to be published is associated with an output product produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, the method comprising:

[0009] • providing at least one output product data set associated with the output product, wherein the at least one output product data set includes output product data and a decentral identifier associated with the output product data,

[0010] • assigning to at least a part of the output product data included in the at least one output product data set one or more confidentiality level(s) indicating the degree of confidentiality of the output product data using a rule-based engine including one or more rule(s) associated with confidentiality level(s),

[0011] • generating the output product data to be published from the output product data set based on the confidentiality level(s), 240625

[0012] 2 providing the generated output product data to be published for publishing in the decentral network.

[0013] Disclosed is in a further aspect an apparatus for generating output product data to be published in a decentral network by a decentral data providing node configured to provide the output product data in response to a request for such output product data, wherein the output product data to be published is associated with an output product produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, the apparatus comprising:

[0014] • a data providing interface configured to provide at least one output product data set associated with the output product, wherein the at least one output product data set includes output product data and a decentral identifier associated with the output product data,

[0015] • a rule-based engine including one or more rule(s) associated with confidentiality level(s) and configured to assign to at least a part of the output product data included in the at least one output product data set one or more confidentiality level(s) indicating the degree of confidentiality of the output product data,

[0016] • a public output data generator configured to generate the output product data to be published from the output product data set based on the confidentiality level(s) and to provide the generated output product data to be published for publishing in the decentral network.

[0017] Disclosed is in yet a further aspect a method for generating a search index from public output product data associated with output product(s) and received via a decentral network from public output product data provider(s), wherein the output product is produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, the method comprising:

[0018] • receiving via the decentral network the public output product data from the output product data provider(s), wherein the public output product data includes at least one identifier and public output product data associated with the output product(s) and wherein the public output product data is generated and provided according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein,

[0019] • creating at least one index entry for the received public output product data by associating at least a part of the data included in the received public output product data with the at least one identifier

[0020] • generating the search index from the at least one created index entry,

[0021] • providing the generated search index for access by a search engine configured to search the received public output product data for public output product data satisfying a received search query and to provide the public output product data satisfying the received search query.

[0022] Disclosed is in yet a further aspect an apparatus for generating a search index from public output product data associated with output product(s) and received via a decentral network from public output product data provider(s), wherein the output product is produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, the apparatus comprising:

[0023] • a decentral data consuming network interface configured to receive via the decentral network the public output product data from the output product data provider(s), wherein the public output product data includes at least one identifier and public output product data associated with the output product(s) and wherein the public output product data is generated and provided according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses of disclosed herein,

[0024] • a search index generator configured to 240625

[0025] 3 o create at least one index entry for the received public output product data by associating at least a part of the data included in the received public output product data with the at least one identifier, o to generate the search index from the at least one created index entry and o to provide the generated search index for access by a search engine configured to search the received public output product data for public output product data satisfying a received search query and to provide the public output product data satisfying the received search query.

[0026] Disclosed is in yet a further aspect a method for returning public output product data associated with output product(s), wherein the output product is produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, the method comprising:

[0027] • receiving query data associated with the output product(s),

[0028] • providing a search index, wherein the search index is generated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses of disclosed herein,

[0029] • providing public output product data received via a decentral network from the output product data provider(s), wherein the public output product data is generated and provided according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses of disclosed herein,

[0030] • gathering a plurality of candidate public output product data from the provided public output product data based on the received query data and the provided search index,

[0031] • optionally ranking the plurality of candidate public output product data based on the query data to obtain a final set of candidate public output product data,

[0032] • providing the plurality of candidate public output product data or the final set of candidate public output product data.

[0033] Disclosed is in yet a further aspect a search service for returning public output product data associated with output product(s), wherein the output product is produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, the service comprising:

[0034] • a search index generated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses of disclosed herein,

[0035] • a database storing public output product data received via a decentral network from the output product data provider(s), wherein the public output product data is generated and provided according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses of disclosed herein,

[0036] • a search engine configured to receive query data associated with the output product(s), to gather a plurality of candidate public output product data from the database based on the received query data and the search index and to provide the plurality of candidate public output product data,

[0037] • optionally a ranking module configured to rank the plurality of candidate public output product data based on the query data to obtain a final set of candidate public output product data and to provide the final set of candidate public output product data.

[0038] Disclosed is in yet a further aspect a method for controlling access to output product data associated with output product(s) via a decentral network, wherein the access is controlled by a data owner of the output product data via a data providing 240625

[0039] 4 node associated with the data owner and wherein the output product is produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, the method comprising:

[0040] • receiving via the decentral network a request to access the output product data, wherein the request includes a decentral identifier associated with the output product data and at least one digital credential(s) certifying that the entity on behalf of which the output product data is requested is associated with or owns company / ies registered in one or more country / ies,

[0041] • authenticating the received request based on the digital credential,

[0042] • optionally authorizing the received request,

[0043] • based on the authentication and optionally authorization, providing the output product data associated with the decentral identifier via the decentral network.

[0044] Disclosed is in yet a further aspect an apparatus for controlling access to output product data associated with output product(s) via a decentral network, wherein the access is controlled by a data owner of the output product data via a data providing node associated with the data owner and wherein the output product is produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, the apparatus comprising:

[0045] • a decentral data consuming network interface configured to receive via the decentral network a request to access the output product data, wherein the request includes a decentral identifier associated with the output product data and at least one digital credential(s) certifying that the entity on behalf of which the output product data is requested is associated with or owns company / ies registered in one or more country / ies,

[0046] • an authentication unit configured to authenticate the received request based on the digital credential,

[0047] • optionally an authorizing unit configured to authorize the received request,

[0048] • a decentral data providing network interface configured to provide - based on the authentication and optionally authorization - the output product data associated with the decentral identifier via the decentral network.

[0049] Disclosed is in yet another aspect a use of the output product data published according to the method(s) disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein to further process the output product associated with the published output product data and / or to access output product data associated with the published output product data from a data owner of the output product data.

[0050] Disclosed is in yet another aspect an output product associated with output product data published according to the method(s) disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein.

[0051] In yet another aspect the present disclosure relates to a computer element with instructions, which when executed on one or more computing node(s) is configured to carry out the steps of the method(s) of the present disclosure or configured to be carried out by the apparatus(es) of the present disclosure.

[0052] Any disclosure, embodiments and examples described herein relate to the methods, the apparatuses, services, the uses, the output products and computer elements lined out above and below. Advantageously, the benefits provided by any of the embodiments and examples equally apply to all other embodiments and examples. 240625

[0053] 5

[0054] EMBODIMENTS

[0055] In the following, embodiments of the present disclosure will be outlined by ways of embodiments and / or examples. It is to be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to said embodiments and / or examples.

[0056] To enable search mechanisms with decentral networks, the generation of search indices of data assets available for sharing within the decentral network is crucial. However, data exchange within decentral networks is associated with access restrictions, limiting the amount of data a participant of the decentral network is able to access and hence view in response to a request for data provided to network nodes of the decentral network. This access restrictions limit the amount of data available for generating search indices and hence also the amount of data provided by a search service in response to a received request for data.

[0057] By allowing data owners within the decentral network to make data publicly available within the decentral network under control and explicit consent of such data owners, the generation of search indices allowing for an efficient search for data being available for sharing within the decentral network is enabled. This way, data owners retain full control over the amount of data made publicly available within the decentral network for product(s) produced or producible by production(s) operated by or associated with the data owners while allowing at the same time to efficiently determine data being available within the decentral network based on search indices generated from such publicly available data. Hence, data owners may select which product data associated with the product(s) is made publicly available and which product data is kept confidential and whether the product data is offered for access or not. Despite the data owners making a part of the product data publicly available, the data owners retain full control over the access to the product data via the decentral network based on identifier(s) associated with such product data. This contrasts with internet-based search engines using crawling techniques to gather publicly available data without the explicit consent of the data owner of such data.

[0058] By generating search indices from the data made publicly available within the decentral network and by using such search indices to determine publicly available data matching a received search request, data available within the decentral network can be efficiently identified and provided to requesting entities based on such search indices. This way, a more efficient planning of the production and / or use and / or re-use and / or recycling of further product(s) is enabled based on the publicly available data. For instance, production data to control and / or monitor the production may be determined based on the data made publicly available. In another instance, control data for controlling the supply of product(s) may be determined and the supply of product(s) may be monitored and / or controlled based on such data. In yet another instance, product(s) associated with data made publicly available may be selected based on target property data associated with target product property / ies and the data made publicly available. The transparency achieved with respect to the product data available within the decentral network may allow a more efficient production of further product(s) using the product, use of the product, re-use and / or recycling of the product while retaining the data sovereignty of the data owners of the product data. This may improve the overall environmental impact of the product ecosystem by enabling a more efficient production, use, re-use and / or recycling processes within the product ecosystem. 240625

[0059] 6

[0060] By controlling access to product data based on a digital credential associated with an entity requesting access to the product data, access to such product data may be requested via a participant of the decentral network on behalf of such entity. The participant may act as an intermediary and may provide access to the decentral network. The entity may use the digital credential to prove to the data owner the identity of the company the entity is associated with or the entity operates. Via the digital credential(s), the entity may provide a tamper-proof and verifiable record of the company data allowing the data owner to verify the authenticity and integrity of the company data. This allows the data owner to decide whether to grant the entity access to the product data or not irrespective of the identity of the participant of the decentral network acting as intermediary. This way, product data associated with data made publicly available within the decentral network may be accessed under full control of the data owner of the product data without the entity requesting the access having to be a member of the decentral network. This allows sharing of product data under full control of the data owner and in a standardized manner with a larger number of data consumer(s), enabling participants of the product ecosystem not being part of the decentral network to use such product data for further processing of the product and / or for controlling the supply of the product to a production. This way, the further processing and / or supply of the product may be controlled and / or monitored more efficiently based on the transparency on the data made publicly available and the product data accessible via the intermediary from the data owners.

[0061] Various units, entities, nodes or other computing components may be described as “configured to” perform a task or tasks. Configured to shall recite structure meaning “having circuitry that” performs the task or tasks on operation. The units, circuits, entities, nodes or other computing components can be configured to perform the task even when the unit / circuit / component is not operating. The units, circuits, entities, nodes or other computing components that form the structure corresponding to “configured to” may include hardware circuits and / or memory storing program instructions executable to implement the operation. The units, circuits, entities, nodes or other computing components may be described as performing a task or tasks, for convenience in the description. Such descriptions shall be interpreted as including the phrase “configured to.”

[0062] In general, the methods, apparatuses, systems, computer elements, nodes or other computing components described herein may include memory, software components and hardware components. The memory can include volatile memory such as static or dynamic random-access memory and / or nonvolatile memory such as optical or magnetic disk storage, flash memory, programmable read-only memories, etc. The hardware components may include any combination of combinatoric logic circuitry, clocked storage devices such as flops, registers, latches, etc., finite state machines, memory such as static random-access memory or embedded dynamic random-access memory, custom designed circuitry, programmable logic arrays, etc.

[0063] Output product data to be published in a decentral network may include output product data provided under control of the data owner of the output product data, such as the output product producer, to the decentral data providing node and being accessible at such decentral data providing node without the data owner controlling access or being able to control access to such output product data. Output product data to be published in a decentral network may include output product data provided under control of the data owner of the output product data, such as the output product producer, to the decentral data providing node for access by one or more entity / ies without the data owner controlling access to or being able to control 240625

[0064] 7 access to such provided output product data. Output product data to be published in a decentral network may include output product data provided under control of the data owner of the output product data, such as the output product producer, to the decentral data providing node controlling access to such received data and configured to provide the received data in response to a request for such output product data. Publishing output product data in the decentral network may include receiving output product data from a data owner controlling access to such output product data and providing such output product data to decentral network participants upon request without the data owner controlling such data provisioning.

[0065] The decentral network may include one or more decentral network node(s) configured to perform data transactions. The decentral network node(s) may be associated with participants of a product ecosystem. The data transactions may be based on a transaction protocol including authentication and / or authorization mechanism(s). Based on the authentication and / or authorization mechanism(s) a peer-to-peer network between decentral network node(s) of the decentral network may be established. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) may be associated with or linked to decentral identifier(s). The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with decentral identifier(s) may be provided to decentral network node(s). The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with decentral identifier(s) may be accessible by decentral network node(s). The decentral configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and strengthens control by each data owner of the decentral network.

[0066] The decentral data providing network node may comprise computer-executable instructions for processing data received via the decentral network, such as output product data provided for publishing by data owners, and / or for providing data within the decentral network in response to a request for such data. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with a search service. The search service may be configured to determine publicly made available output product data matching a request for such data and to provide the determined data to the decentral data providing network node.

[0067] Output product may include any product produced or producible from one or more input materials. The output product may be produced or producible via one or more process steps. The process steps may involve chemical reactions and / or physical processes and / or assembly processes. The input material may be used in one or more of such production step(s). The output product may comprise or be any product produced or producible by a production and provided at any exit point of the production. The output product may be used as input material to produce one or more product(s). The product(s) may be produced by one or more downstream participants which may use the output product(s) produced by one or more upstream participants as input material(s). The output product may be associated with an output product identifier. The output product identifier may be a digital or virtual output product identifier. The output product identifier may uniquely identify the output product within the entity producing the output product. The output product identifier may uniquely identify the output product within the decentral network. The output product identifier may be associated with an identifier element physically connected to the output product. The identifier element may encode the digital output product identifier. The output product identifier may include an output product name, an output product number, a LOT number, a batch number, a serial number, etc..

[0068] Produced output product(s) may be physical entity / ies of output product(s) having been produced by the production.

[0069] Producible output product(s) may not yet have been produced by the production but may be producible by one or more production process(es) performed within the production. Producible output product(s) may include output product(s) planned 240625

[0070] 8 to be produced, for example based on demand data received from downstream participant(s) (e.g. output product consumer(s)). Producible output product(s) may include output product(s) which can be produced by one or more process step(s) performed within the production.

[0071] The output product, the input material and the product may be part of a product ecosystem. The product ecosystem may include chemical products. The product ecosystem may include production chains to produce a product. The product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly or an end-product. The product ecosystem may include processing chains to process used products resulting from the use of produced products. Processing chains may include recycling chains to recycle at least part of the used product or a component thereof. Processing chains may include re-use chains to re-use the used product. The product ecosystem may include various participants, such as raw input material producers, chemical product producers, chemical product users, end-product producers, end-product users, EOL product collectors and recyclers. The product ecosystem may allow to use of recycled materials resulting from recycling of end-of-life end products to produce new products, such as chemical products. The product ecosystem may be associated with the production and / or re-use and / or recycling of physical products. At least a part of the participants of the product ecosystem may be connected via the decentral network.

[0072] The production may include one or more process steps. The process steps may involve chemical reactions and / or physical processes and / or assembly processes involving the assembly of different discrete input material(s) and / or processes involving chemical input materials and discrete input materials, such as filling processes. The process steps may involve collection and / or sorting steps(s). The process step(s) may include repair, refurbish, repurpose and / or maintenance steps(s). The process step(s) may include recycling step(s). The production may be a discrete production. The discrete production may produce discrete output product(s), such as component(s), part(s), component-assemblies and end product(s). The production may be a chemical production. The chemical production may produce chemical output product(s). The chemical production may be a chemical production network. The chemical production network may include multiple interlinked processing steps. The chemical production network may be an integrated chemical production network with connected or interconnected production chains. The chemical production network may include multiple different production chains that have at least one intermediate product in common. The chemical production network may include multiple stages of the chemical value chain. The chemical production network may include the production, refining, processing and / or purification of chemical products. The chemical production network may include multiple production chains that produce from one or more input material(s) that enter the chemical production network multiple chemical products that exit the chemical production network. The chemical production network may include multiple tiers of a chemical value chain. The chemical production network may include physically connected or interconnected supply chains and / or production sites. The production sites may be at the same location or at different locations. In the latter case, the production sites may be connected or interconnected by means of dedicated transportation systems such as pipelines, supply chain vehicles, like trucks, ships or other cargo transportation means. The chemical production network may chemically convert input materials via chemical intermediates to one or more chemical product(s) that exit the chemical production network. The chemical production network may convert input material(s) by way of chemical conversion to one or more chemical product(s). The 240625

[0073] 9 production may be a discrete production.

[0074] The decentral identifier may include any unique identifier or combination of identifier(s) uniquely associated with the output product data and optionally the data owner of the output product data. The decentral identifier may connect the physical entity of the output product to the output product data. The decentral identifier may connect an entity of the producible output product to the output product data. The decentral identifier may include one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID(s)) and / or one or more Decentralized Identifier(s) (DID(s)). The decentral identifier may further include or be associated with an output product identifier associated with the output product. The decentral identifier may be issued by a central or decentral identity issuer. The decentral identifier may be generated by the data owner or on behalf of the data owner of the output product data. The decentral identifier may include or be associated with authentication information. Via the decentral identifier and its unique association with the output product data associated with the output product and optionally the data owner of the output product data, access to the output product data may be controlled by the data owner of the output product data. This contrasts with central authority schemes, where identifiers are provided by such central authority and access to data is controlled by such central authority. Decentral in this context refers to the usage of the decentral identifier in implementations as controlled by the data owner of the output product data. The decentral identifier may be a digital or virtual identifier, e.g. may not correspond to physical identifier(s) physically attached to the output product.

[0075] The decentral identifier may include or be associated with one or more identifier(s) used in the decentral network and allowing for exchange of output product data via the decentral network. For instance, the decentral identifier may include or be associated with identifier(s) of output product data set(s) and / or endpoint(s) associated with decentral data providing node(s) providing the output product data or a part thereof. Data exchange may include discovery of the decentral identifier and optionally identifier(s) included in or be associated with said decentral identifier for participant nodes of the decentral network, authentication of participant nodes of the decentral network and / or authorization of data transfers via a peer-to-peer communication between participant nodes of the decentral network.

[0076] The decentral identifier may be associated with a representation for accessing the output product data. The representation may include an endpoint for accessing the output product data. The endpoint may be associated with a decentral data providing node configured to provide the output product data. The decentral data providing node may have access to the database storing the output product data. The data owner may control access to the output product data via the decentral data providing node.

[0077] The confidentiality level may signify or indicate the degree of confidentiality of at least a part of the output product data, such as output product data point(s), group(s) of data point(s) and / or attribute(s). The confidentiality level may indicate access restricted or non-access restricted output product data. The confidentiality level may indicate output product data associated with access restriction(s) or output product data not being associated with access restriction(s). The confidentiality level may indicate output product data associated with permission(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) of the data consumer or output product data not being associated with any permission(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) of the data consumer. The confidentiality level may be used to discriminate between public output product data, e.g. output product data to be published in the decentral network or non-access restricted output product data, and proprietary output product data (e.g. output product data not to be published in the decentral network or access-restricted output product data). The confidentiality level may be used to discriminate between public output product data, proprietary output product data for sharing (e.g. output product data that may be shared with authorized participants of the decentral network upon request but which is not to be published in the decentral network) and proprietary output product data (e.g. output product data which is not shared within the decentral network). The confidentiality level(s) may be assigned per output product data point. The confidentiality level(s) may be assigned per data class. The data class may relate to production data, property data, emission data, safety data, declaration data, certificate of analysis data, recycled content data, biobased content data, renewable content data, biodegradability data, producer data, composition data, packaging data, transport data, handling instruction data, usage data or combinations thereof. The data class may include access-restricted (e.g. output product data not to be published) output product data and / or non-access restricted output product data (e.g. output product data not to be published). Different confidentiality levels may be assigned for different data classes. For example, the confidentiality level “public” may be assigned to the producer data of the output product while the confidentiality level “proprietary for sharing” may be assigned to emission data, such as carbon footprint data, of the output product. The confidentiality level(s) may define whether data point(s) included in the output product data set is / are to be used for generating the public output product data based on such confidentiality level(s). The confidentiality level(s) may define whether group(s) of data point(s) included in the output product data set is / are to be used for generating the public output product data based on such confidentiality level(s).

[0078] A rule-based engine may be used to assign confidentiality level(s) to at least part of the output product data. The rule-based engine may be a software or software component that applies one or more rules to at least part of the output product data. The rule(s) may include or correspond to executable logic. The executable logic may be generated from a rule template including unstructured data associated with instructions related to confidentiality level(s). The rule-based engine used to assign confidentiality level(s) to at least part of the output product data may include one or more rule(s) associated with the confidentiality level(s). The rule-based engine may operate on individual data point level, combination of data points or the whole output product data. The operation of the rule-based engine may be defined by the one or more rule(s). Rule(s) associated with individual data point(s) may include one or more rule(s) defining condition(s) for confidentiality level(s) of individual data points present with the output product data. Use of such rule(s) allows to ensure that confidentiality level(s) are assigned on data point level, allowing for a granular selection of output product data to be published from the output product data included in the provided output product data set. Rule(s) associated with multiple data points may include one or more rules defining confidentiality level(s) for combination(s) of data points. Use of such rule(s) allows to assign confidentiality level(s) to different output product data classes.

[0079] The search index may be a structured data set mapping terms, such as data point(s) included in the output product data to be published, to an identifier associated with the output product data to be published. The mapping of term to identifier may represent an entry in the search index. The search index may include one or more term - identifier mapping(s). The search index may be an inverted index, an inverted vector file index, a database index, a resource description framework (RDF) index and / or a graph based index. The search index may enable efficient retrieval of output product data in response to a 240625

[0080] 11 request for such data. The search index may be distributed across multiple servers or clusters to allow for parallel processing and handling of large volumes of data efficiently.

[0081] The data owner may be an entity having access to the output product data and controlling access by data consuming node(s) of the decentral network to the output product data. The data owner may be the output product producer and / or the output product owner and / or the output product user. The data owner may be the entity operating the production producing the output product. The output product data may be accessible for the data owner. The data owner may hence directly or indirectly own the output product data. The output product data may be stored in a database of or associated with the data owner. The output product data may be stored in a database accessible by the data owner. The data owner may control access to the output product data via the data providing node associated with the data owner. The data owner may control access to the output product data. The output product data may be associated with the data owner. The data owner may be the owner of the output product data or the output product data owner. The output product data may be stored in a data base of or under control by the data owner. The output product data may be stored in a database for access by output product data consumer(s).

[0082] The digital credential may be an electronic representation of company attribute(s) that is issued by a trusted authority, such as a government authority, and stored digitally. It may include cryptographic techniques to ensure authenticity and prevent tampering, such as hash(es) of data included in the digital credential. The digital credential may include a unique company identifier that ties the credential to the company and company data associated with the company, a digital signature from the issuing authority, and metadata about the credential, such as issuance date, expiration date, credential identifier and issuer identifier. The digital credential may be stored in a digital wallet and may be presented or shared electronically by the holder. The holder may present the digital credential itself, or may present data from the digital credential in the form of another data structure, which may be referred to herein as a “presentation”. The holder may present data formats derived from the digital credential that are cryptographically verifiable, but do not of themselves contain the digital credentials as verifiable presentation. A verifiable presentation may express data from one or more digital credentials, and may be packaged in such a way that the authorship of the data is verifiable. If digital credentials are presented directly, they may become presentations. The digital credential may be a verifiable credential, such as a verifiable credential according to the W3C standard. The digital credential may be signed by the issuer.

[0083] In an embodiment providing the at least one output product data set includes

[0084] • providing output product identifier(s) associated with the output product,

[0085] • gathering output product data from one or more databases based on the output product identifier(s),

[0086] • providing an output product data set identifier associated with the output product data,

[0087] • generating transformed output product data by transforming gathered output product data using a rule-based engine including one or more rule(s) related to a data model associated with at a product produced from the output product and linking the output product data set identifier to the transformed data. 240625

[0088] 12

[0089] By transforming the gathered output product data using such rule-based engine based on a data model associated with a product produced using the output product, the gathered output product can be transformed from an ontology used by the data owner of the output product data to an ontology or data model used by the data consumer without the data provider having to generate or use data model(s) matching the ontology of the data consumer. Hence, cumbersome and complex generation of data models for each output product class produced by an output product producer can be avoided, allowing generation and reliable sharing of output product data by output product producers with downstream participants of the product ecosystem. This way, the complexity in the generation of digital product passport(s) for product(s) may be reduced by converting the output product data provided by data providers for such product passports according to the data model of the product to avoid the usage of data model(s) by supplier(s) supplying output product(s) for the production of the product.

[0090] In another embodiment providing the at least one output product data set includes

[0091] • providing output product identifier(s) associated with the output product,

[0092] • gathering output product data from one or more databases based on the output product identifier(s),

[0093] • providing a decentral identifier associated with the output product data,

[0094] • providing one or more data model(s) associated with an output product class associated with the output product,

[0095] • generating output product data set(s) by applying the provided data model(s) to the gathered output product data and the decentral identifier.

[0096] In an embodiment the output product data includes property data associated with the output product, the output product name, the output product producer, output product declaration data, output product safety data, emission data associated with the output product, recyclate content data associated with the output product, biobased content data associated with the output product, renewable content data associated with the output product, production data associated with the output product, certificate of analysis data associated with the output product, certificates associated with the output product, life cycle data associated with the output product, storage instruction data associated with the output product, assembly instructions associated with the output product, operating conditions associated with the output product or a combination thereof.

[0097] Property data associated with the output product may include at least one measured physical and / or chemical property of the output product and / or at least one physical and / or chemical property determined from collected data associated with a production and / or a use of the output product. The chemical property may be a property of the output product that becomes evident during, or after, a chemical reaction. Hence, the chemical property may be any quality that can be established only by changing the chemical identity of the output product. Examples of chemical properties include heat of combustion, enthalpy of formation, toxicity, chemical stability in a given environment, flammability, oxidation state(s), ability to corrode, combustibility, acidity and basicity, chemical product composition, recyclate content used for producing or manufacturing the input material, bio-based content used for producing or manufacturing the input material, renewable content used for producing or manufacturing the input material and / or pH value. Property may be any property that is measurable. Hence, the value of a physical property describes a state of the output product. Examples of physical properties include absorption, brittleness, boiling point, capacitance, color, concentration, density, ductility, distribution, efficacy, elasticity, electric charge, 240625

[0098] 13 electrical conductivity, electrical impedance, electric potential, flow rate, fluidity, hardness, heat capacity, inductance, intrinsic impedance, luminance, luminescence, luster, mass, melting point, opacity, permeability, permittivity, plasticity, pressure, radiance, resistivity, reflectivity, refractive index, solubility, specific heat, strength, stiffness, temperature, tension, thermal conductivity, thermal resistance, viscosity, volume and / or wave impedance. The measured at least one physical and / or chemical property may be obtained by sensors configured to measure the physical and / or chemical property. The sensor may be included in a measuring device. The sensor may correspond to the measuring device. For example, the physical and / or chemical property may include a property provided by sensors of a mobile device such as a camera, or measurement devices configured to measure at least one physical and / or chemical property.

[0099] Production data associated with the production of the output product may be collected before, during and / or after production of the input material. The collected data may be used to determine at least one physical and / or chemical property of the produced output product as previously described. Production data associated with the production of the output product may include monitoring and / or control data associated with the production of the output product.

[0100] Emission data may include any data related to environmental footprint. The environmental footprint may refer to an entity and its associated environmental footprint. The environmental footprint may be entity specific. For instance, the environmental footprint may relate to a product, a company, a process such as a manufacturing process, a raw material or basic substance, a chemical product or material, a component, a component assembly, an end product, combinations thereof or additional entity-specific relations. Emission data may include data relating to the carbon footprint of the chemical product or a Product Carbon Footprint (PCF). Emission data may include data relating to greenhouse gas emissions e.g. released in production of the chemical product. Emission data may include data related to greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions may include emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, methane (CPU) emission, nitrous oxide (N2O) emission, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) emission, perfluorocarbons (PFCs) emission, sulphurhexafluoride (SFe) emission, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) emission, combinations thereof and additional emissions. Emission data may include data related to greenhouse gas emissions of an entities or companies own operations (production, power plants and waste incineration). Scope 2 may comprise emissions from energy production which is sourced externally. Scope 3 may comprise all other emissions along the value chain. Specifically, this may include the greenhouse gas emissions of raw materials obtained from suppliers. Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) may sum up greenhouse gas emissions and removals from the consecutive and interlinked process steps related to a particular product. Cradle-to-gate PCF may sum up greenhouse gas emissions based on selected process steps: e.g. from the extraction of resources up to the factory gate where the product leaves the company. Such PCFs may be called partial PCFs. In order to achieve such summation, each company providing any products may provide the scope 1 and scope 2 contributions to the PCF for each of its products.

[0101] Recyclate content data and / or bio-based content data and / or renewable content data may comprise any data related to the recyclate content or the bio-based content or the renewable content used for providing or manufacturing a physical entity or product at any stage in the chemical supply chain such as a raw material or basic substance, chemical product or chemical material, component, component assembly or end product. 240625

[0102] 14

[0103] Operating condition(s) may include process data associated with process(es) for processing the output product to produce further product(s) using the output product. Process data may include processing parameter(s) associated with such process(es), such as application parameters, extruding parameters, melt-processing parameters or the like, and / or process instruction(s) associated with such process(es). The process instruction(s) may include a name and / or a description of process(es) for processing the output product.

[0104] In an embodiment the confidentiality level(s) define output product data to be published in the decentral network and output product data not to be published in the decentral network. In another embodiment the confidentiality level(s) define output product data to be published in the decentral network, output product data not to be published in the decentral network but to be shared under control of the output product data owner within the decentral network and output product data not to be published and shared within the decentral network. The confidentiality level(s) may be linked to output product data point(s) and / or group(s) of output product data point(s). Group(s) of data point(s) may correspond to data class(es). Data class(es) may relate to production data, property data, emission data, safety data, declaration data, certificate of analysis data, recycled content data, biobased content data, renewable content data, biodegradability data, producer data, composition data, packaging data, transport data, handling instruction data, usage data or combinations thereof. The confidentiality level(s) may correspond to key-value pair(s) associated with or linked to output product data point(s) and / or group(s) of output product data point(s). The value may indicate the confidentiality level, such as “public”, “private for sharing” and “private”. The confidentiality level may signify or indicate the degree of confidentiality of such data point(s) and / or attribute(s). The confidentiality level may be used to discriminate between public output product data, e.g. output product data for publishing in the decentral network, and proprietary output product data (e.g. output product data not to be published in the decentral network). The confidentiality level may be used to discriminate between public output product data, proprietary output product data for sharing (e.g. output product data that may be shared with predefined participants of the decentral network upon request but which may not be published in the decentral network) and proprietary output product data (e.g. output product data which is not shared within the decentral network). By using confidentiality level(s), the output product data can be classified into different categories and can be reliably shared within the decentral network based on such categories.

[0105] In an embodiment the one or more rule(s) associated with confidentiality level (s) are generated from unstructured data associated with instructions related to the definition of output product data to be published, output product data to be kept confidential but available for sharing within the decentral network under control of a data owner of the output product data and output product data to be kept confidential and not to be shared within the decentral network. The unstructured data may include instructions in natural language. The instructions may define which output product data is to be published, which output product data is to be kept private or confidential but available for sharing and / or which output product data is to be kept confidential (e.g. not shared within the decentral network).

[0106] In an embodiment the output product data to be published includes an identifier associated with the output product data to be published and public output product data. Public output product data may include property data associated with the output product, the output product name, the output product producer, output product declaration data, output product safety data, 240625

[0107] 15 certificate of analysis data associated with the output product, storage instruction data associated with the output product, assembly instructions associated with the output product, operating conditions associated with the output product, policy data defining permission(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) of the data consumer with respect to the usage of the output product data, data model name(s) associated with data model(s) used to generate the output product data set(s), a decentral participant identifier associated with a data owner of the output product data, an endpoint of the data providing node associated with the data owner and providing the output product data and / or an indication that the output product data includes data designated as not to be published but available for sharing under control of the data owner of the output product data or a combination thereof.

[0108] In an embodiment the output product data to be published is generated by aggregating data included in the at least one output product data set and being associated with predefined confidentiality level(s). Aggregation may be performed for one or more predefined confidentiality level(s). Aggregation may be performed by determining the predefined confidentiality level(s), determining output product data associated with such determined predefined confidentiality level(s) and aggregating the determined output product data. Aggregation may be performed per output product data set including confidentiality level(s). Each output product data set may be associated with a given output product, such as a given batch of the output product. Aggregating may allow to generate the output product data to be published from data point(s) or group(s) of data point(s) included in the output product data. This way, the amount of output product data to be provided to the decentral data providing node for publishing can be reduced and processing of the aggregated data as a single unit can be ensured. This allows to improve the amount of data that can be exchanged within the decentral network to improve scalability while maintaining data integrity of the public output product data associated with a given output product.

[0109] In an embodiment generating the output product data to be published includes aggregating data included in the at least one output product data set and being associated with predefined confidentiality level(s), gathering additional data associated with the output product data set and / or associated with the data owner of the output product data set and generating the output product data to be published based on the aggregated data and the additional data. The additional data may include policy data defining permission(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) of the data consumer with respect to the usage of the output product data to be published, the data model, a decentral participant identifier associated with the data owner, an endpoint of the data providing node associated with the data owner and providing the output product data and / or an indication that output product data designated as not to be published is available for sharing under control of the data owner of the output product data. The data consumer may be a search service providing public output product data matching a request received from a participant of the decentral network. The search service may be part of the decentral network. The search service may include the decentral data providing node providing the public output product data in response to a received request for such public output product data. The output product data aggregated based on predefined confidentiality level(s) and the additional data may be merged or joined.

[0110] In an embodiment providing the output product data to be published for publishing includes providing the output product data to be published via the decentral network to the search service configured to search the received output product data for output product data satisfying a received search query and to provide the output product data satisfying the received search 240625

[0111] 16 query. The output product data satisfying the received search query or request may be provided to the requestor via the decentral data providing network node. The search service may indirectly publish such received data in the decentral network by providing received public output product data matching a search query received from participants of the decentral network and / or third parties to such participants and / or third parties. Providing the public output product data may include generating policy data defining permissions(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) of the search service with respect to the usage of the received output product data. The policy data may be provided along with the output product data to be published. The output product data to be published may be provided upon the search service accepting the permissions(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) included in the policy data. This way, the data owner of the output product data may control the usage of the output product data to be published by the search service.

[0112] The search service may be configured to generate a search index from the received output product data to be published and to determine the output product data satisfying the received search query based on the generated search index, in particular wherein the search index includes at least one index entry relating received output product data to be published to an identifier associated with such output product data. The search index may be an inverted search index, an inverted vector file index, a database index, a resource description framework (RDF) index and / or a graph based index. The inverted search index may associate data point(s) included in the public output product data with the respective identifier included in such output product data. It hence stores a mapping between data point(s) included in the public output product data and the respective public output product data. An inverted vector file index may store a mapping between data point(s) included in the public output product data with the respective public output product data and a weighting scheme based on the frequency data point(s) appear in the public output product data and its rarity across the entire public output product data. The weighting scheme may be used for ranking of the search results matching a received search query. An RDF index may include a graph representing relationships between entities represented by triples of subject, predicate and object, where the nodes are the entities and the edges are the relationships. In a graph based index, the public output product data is represented as a graph where part(s) of the public output data corresponds to node(s) and relationship(s) between such public output product data part(s) correspond to edge(s). This way, public output product data may be easily and quickly determined based on data point(s) included in received query data.

[0113] In an embodiment the output product data to be published is provided under control of a data owner of the output product data to be published via a decentral network node associated with the data owner. Via the decentral network node associated with the data owner, the data owner may control access to the output product data to be published. The output product data to be published may be stored in a database associated with or controlled by the data owner. The database may be accessible for the data owner. Access to the database may be controlled by the data owner, for example via the decentral network node. This way, the output product data is only made publicly available in the decentral network with explicit consent of the data owner of the output product data. This allows to improve data discovery within the decentral network by allowing data owners to make output product data available under full control of such data owners while at the same time allowing such data owners to retain full access control to sensitive (e.g. confidential) output product data. Despite publishing parts of the output product data set in the decentral network, access to sensitive parts of such output product data set, such as emission data, composition data or the like, may still be controlled by the data owner of the output product data 240625

[0114] 17 set via peer-to-peer communications between the data owner and the participant requesting access to such data via the decentral network.

[0115] In an embodiment the method further includes a step of aggregating output product data set(s) including output product data at least in part being associated with the confidentiality level(s) prior to generating the output product data to be published. The output product data set(s) may be aggregated based on predefined confidentiality level(s). The output product data set(s) may be aggregated by comparing the confidentiality level(s) included in the output product data set(s) with the predefined confidentiality level(s) and aggregating output product data included in such data set(s) and being associated with confidentiality level(s) matching predefined confidentiality level(s). The output product data set(s) may be aggregated by comparing the confidentiality level(s) included in the output product data set(s) with the predefined confidentiality level(s) and aggregating output product data included in such data set(s) and being associated with confidentiality level(s) not matching predefined confidentiality level(s). This way, the amount of output product data to be provided to the decentral data providing node for publishing can be reduced and processing of the aggregated data as a single unit can be ensured.

[0116] In an embodiment the method for generating a search index from public output product data further includes a step of processing the received public output product data prior to creating the at least one index entry. Processing may include parsing the received public output product data, normalizing the received public output product data, validating of at least a part of the received public output product data and / or enriching the received public output product data with further data. Validation may include parsing the received public output product data and comparing the parsed public output product data with predefined data or with a predefined data model. The predefined data or data model may include or define one or more mandatory data point(s) to be included in the received public output product data. The further data for data enrichment may be gathered from one or more databases. The databases may be publicly available databases. The databases may be access-restricted databases requiring access rights to access such databases. The further data may include chemical name synonym(s), trade name synonym(s), CAS number, EC number, InChi identifier, InCh I Key, IUPAC name, ChEBI identifier, Beilstein Registry Number and / or ChEMBL identifier. This way, it can be ensured that the public output product data can be identified using the search index based on a received request including commonly known search terms, such as CAS number, EC number, InChi code, Beilstein registry number, InChlKey, IUPAC name, trivial name, trade name and / or ChEMBL identifier.

[0117] In an embodiment the method for generating a search index from public output product data further includes a step of updating the search index with further public output product data received via the decentral network from further public output product data provider(s) by creating at least one new index entry in the search index based on the received further public output product data and / or by adding data to at least one entry existing in the search index based on the received further public output product data.

[0118] In an embodiment of the method for controlling access to output product data associated with output product(s) via the decentral network, the at least one digital credential includes company identifier(s), company data associated with the company / ies and / or proof data associated with the data integrity of the digital credential. The digital credential may refer to 240625

[0119] 18 a data set including one or more claims, e.g. assertion(s), about a subject, made by an issuer of the digital credential. Claim (s) may correspond to assertions concerning the rightful registration of the company or production within a given country. The subject may refer to the company or production about which claim(s) are made. The subject may be the company or production the digital credential is associated with. The digital credential may include digital credential data, claim(s) about a subject, evidence data and proof data. The company data may include company registration number(s), company name(s) and / or company address(es). The digital credential may further include proof data. The proof data may contain a signature value generated using the private key associated with the issuer of the digital credential. The signature value may be cryptographically verified using the public key associated with said private key. The digital credential may further include evidence data. The evidence data may include data used by the issuer upon issuing the digital credential(s) to verify the company data prior to issuing the digital credential.

[0120] In an embodiment of the method for controlling access to output product data associated with output product(s) via the decentral network, the at least one digital credential is a verifiable credential. The verifiable credential may be a tamper- evident credential that has authorship that can be cryptographically verified. This way, the holder of the digital credential can proof to third parties in a tamper-evident way that is associated with or owns company / ies registered in one or more country / ies. The holder may be the third party, such as an output product user. The holder may be a company owner, a person allowed to represent the company and / or an employee of the company.

[0121] In an embodiment of the method for controlling access to output product data associated with output product(s) via the decentral network, the request includes a presentation of the at least one digital credential. The presentation may include one or more digital credential(s) selected by the holder upon generation of the presentation. The presentation may include part(s) of digital credential(s), such as one or more claim(s), selected by the holder upon generation of the presentation and optionally the proof data included in the digital credential. This way, the holder may only disclose the information required by the verifier while avoiding disclosure of the complete information included in the digital credent! al (s) . The presentation may contain proof data. The proof data may include the public key or a pointer to such public key associated with the private key used to sign the presentation.

[0122] In an embodiment of the method for controlling access to output product data associated with output product(s) via the decentral network, access to the output product data is requested by a participant of the decentral network on behalf of the holder of the digital credential. This way, the holder of the digital credential does not have to be a participant of the decentral network to access the output product data. Instead, the holder of the digital credential may access the output product data using a decentral node of a participant of the decentral network. This allows participants of a product ecosystem including the output product to access the output product data without having to be a participant of the decentral network, hence facilitating access to output product data while retaining the data sovereignty associated with data exchanges within the decentral network. This may enable more efficient production of further product(s) using the output product(s), use of the product, re-use and / or recycling of the product based on output product data gathered from the decentral network while retaining the data sovereignty of the data owners of the product data. This may improve the overall environmental impact of 240625

[0123] 19 the product ecosystem by enabling a more efficient production, use, re-use and / or recycling processes within the product ecosystem.

[0124] In an embodiment of the method for controlling access to output product data associated with output product(s) via the decentral network, authenticating the received request includes verifying the digital credential and / or the data included in the digital credential and / or to compare data included in the digital credential to data indicating companies allowed to access the output product data or to data indicating companies not allowed to access the output product data. Authentication may include gathering access data associated with the output product data based on the output product data identifier included in the received request. The access data may be associated with the output product data identifier. The access data may be linked via the output product data identifier with the output product data. The access data may include access rule(s) defining company / ies allowed to access the output product data associated with the decentral identifier. Such access rule(s) may define a whitelist of companies allowed to access the output product data. The access data may access rule(s) defining company / ies not allowed to access the output product data associated with the decentral identifier. Such rule(s) may define a blacklist of companies not allowed to access the output product data. The access rule(s) may include the company data associated with company / ies allowed or not allowed to access the output product data. The company data may include the company name, the company identifier and / or the company address or parts thereof. This way, the output product data owner can reliably control access to the output product data by participants not being part of the decentral network.

[0125] In an embodiment of the method for controlling access to output product data associated with output product(s) via the decentral network, authorizing the request includes gathering policy data defining permission(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) associated with the usage of the output product data based on the decentral identifier, gathering the output product data based on the decentral identifier and applying the policy data to the output product data. The permission(s), prohibition(s) and / or obligation(s) may be related to the use of the output product data by the holder of the digital credential. Use may include processing the output product data and / or persisting the output product data in a data storage. Processing may include merging, joining, modifying and / or deleting output product data. The output product data may be gathered based on the output product data identifier from a database storing the output product data for access by data consumer(s), such as output product user(s). This way, the data owner of the output product data may ensure that the data consumer, such as the holder of the digital credential, adheres to the policy data defined for the output product data by the data owner, despite the data consumer not being part of the decentral network.

[0126] In an embodiment of the method for controlling access to output product data associated with output product(s) via the decentral network, the output product data is stored in a database associated with or controlled by the data owner for access by data consumer(s). The output product data may be associated with or include a decentral identifier. The decentral identifier may be associated with a representation for accessing the output product data or parts thereof. The representation for accessing the output product data or parts thereof may include one or more digital representation(s) pointing to the output product data or parts thereof. The digital representation(s) may include a pointer pointing to the database storing the output product data. Via the representation, the output product data may be accessed within the decentral network under control of the data owner of the output product data. 240625

[0127] 20

[0128] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0129] In the following, the present disclosure is further described with reference to the enclosed figures. The same reference numbers in the drawings and this disclosure are intended to refer to the same or like elements, components, and / or parts. The description of drawings is provided for illustrative purposes and shall not be considered limiting. The embodiments and examples are illustrative embodiments and examples to further line out the concepts lined out herein. The figures include schematic illustrations and shall not be considered limiting. Other embodiments and examples that fall under the concepts lined out herein are possible and may not be explicitly described herein.

[0130] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a participant network of a product ecosystem associated with a decentral peer-to- peer network for transfer of data associated with input materials and output products used within the product ecosystem.

[0131] FIG. 2 illustrates an example system and associated methods for publishing output product data associated with output product(s) produced FIG. 21 illustrates a method for providing output product data associated with output product(s) via decentral network from one or more input material(s) by a production in a decentral network.

[0132] FIG. 3A illustrates an embodiment of the asset generation system shown in FIG. 2.

[0133] FIG. 3B illustrates another embodiment of the asset generation system shown in FIG. 2.

[0134] FIG. 4A illustrates an example of an output product data set generated by the systems shown in FIG. 2 to FIG. 3B.

[0135] FIG. 4B illustrates another example of an output product data set generated by the systems shown in FIG. 2 to FIG.

[0136] 3B.

[0137] FIG. 5 illustrates an example of an output product publisher service shown in FIG. 2 to FIG. 3B.

[0138] FIG. 6A illustrates an example of a public output product data generated by the systems shown in FIG. 2 to FIG. 5.

[0139] FIG. 6B illustrates another example of a public output product data generated by the systems shown in FIG. 2 to FIG. 5.

[0140] FIG. 60 illustrates yet another example of a public output product data generated by the systems shown in FIG. 2 to FIG. 5.

[0141] FIG. 7A illustrates an example of a method for generating output product data be published in a decentral network. 240625

[0142] 21

[0143] FIG. 7B illustrates an embodiment of the method of FIG. 7A.

[0144] FIG. 8A illustrates another example of a method for generating output product data be published in a decentral network.

[0145] FIG. 8B illustrates an embodiment of the method of FIG. 8A.

[0146] FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a decentral search service configured to receive query data associated with output products from data consumers and to provide public output product data matching such query data to the data customers.

[0147] FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a method for generating a search index based on public output product data received from public output product data providers via a decentral network.

[0148] FIG. 11 illustrates an example of search index generated by the system of FIG. 9 or by the method of FIG. 10.

[0149] FIG. 12A illustrates an example architecture of a search service provider environment connected via a decentral network to a search service user environment for providing public output product data matching query data received by the search service user environment.

[0150] FIG. 12B illustrates an example architecture of a search service provider environment connected via an API a search service user environment for providing public output product data matching query data received by the search service user environment.

[0151] FIG. 13 illustrates a user interface showing public output product data associated with an output product and matching query data associated with the output product.

[0152] FIG. 14 illustrates an example of a system and associated methods for transferring output product data associated with an output product within a decentral network from a data provider to data consumer(s) consuming the output product data.

[0153] FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a system and associated methods for transferring output product data associated with an output product within a decentral network from a data provider to data consumer(s) consuming the output product data and validating the consumed output product data.

[0154] FIG. 16 illustrates a method for generating and / or updating address data for gathering output product data associated with output product(s) via a decentral network. 240625

[0155] 22

[0156] FIG. 17 illustrates an example sequence diagram of a method for providing public output product data associated with output product(s) matching query data associated with such output product(s).

[0157] FIG. 18 illustrates a schematic example of a graphical user interface of a web-based search engine for searching output products offered for purchase by output product producer(s).

[0158] FIG. 19 illustrates an example system and associated methods for gathering output product data by a third party not being a participant of a decentral network via a participant of the decentral network from data provider(s) associated with such output product data.

[0159] FIG. 20A illustrates a basic JSON structure of a digital credential certifying that a company is registered within a given country.

[0160] FIG. 20B illustrates examples of roles and data flows involved in issuing and using digital credential(s).

[0161] FIG. 20C illustrates a basic JSON structure of a presentation of a digital credential.

[0162] FIG. 21 illustrates a method for providing output product data associated with output product(s) via decentral network.

[0163] DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0164] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a participant network of a product ecosystem associated with a decentral peer-to-peer network for transfer of data associated with input materials (e.g. input material data) and produced output products (e.g. output product data) used within the product ecosystem. The input material(s) may be used to produce one or more output product(s). The output product(s) may in turn be used by downstream participant(s) as input material(s) to produce further output product(s). For instance, chemical product producer 104 may use virgin material(s) supplied by virgin material producer 102 and / or recycled material(s) supplied by recycler 114 as input material(s) to produce one or more chemical intermediate product(s) and / or chemical product(s) as output product(s). Chemical product producer 104 may supply the produced output product(s) to chemical product user 106. Chemical product user 106 may use the received product(s) as input material(s) to produce one for more output product(s).

[0165] The participant network 132 of the product ecosystem associated may be associated with a decentral peer-to-peer network 136 for exchange of data associated with input materials and produced output products and / or for searching data associated with input materials and / or produced output product(s) within the decentral network 136. The participant network 132 may include one or more network participants 104 to 114 associated with decentral participant nodes 118 to 128. The network participants may be part of an industry or may be part of different industries. The network participants may be part of a product ecosystem including chemical products. The product ecosystem may include production chains to produce one or 240625

[0166] 23 more end-product(s). The product ecosystem may include recycling chains to recycle at least part of an end-of-life product resulting from the use of the end product(s).

[0167] The product ecosystem may include a virgin material producer 102, a chemical product producer 104, a chemical product user 106, an end product producer 108, an end product user 110, an EOL product collector / sorter 112 and a recycler 114. The product ecosystem illustrated in FIG. 1 is a mere example and may include more or less participants. For example, the product ecosystem may include a chain of chemical product producers instead of only one chemical product producer 104. The participant network 132 may include a chemical supply chain. The product ecosystem may allow to use materials resulting from recycling of end-of-life products to produce new products, such as chemical products. The product ecosystem may be associated with the production and / or recycling of physical products. The product may be an intermediate chemical product, a chemical product, a component, a component assembly, an end product, an end-of-life product or a recycled material.

[0168] The participants of the participant network 132 may be associated with the production of the product, the use of the product and / or the recycling of the product. The network participant 102 to 114 may refer to a manufacturer of physical products, such as a virgin material producer 102, a chemical product producer 104, a chemical product user 106, an end product producer 108, a user of physical goods, such as end product user 110, a participant of a recycling chain associated with the physical product, such as EOL product collector / sorter 112 and / or a recycler 114. The network participants 102 to 114 may be associated with a participant node 118 to 128 and a decentral participant identifier related to an associated participant node(s) 118 to 128. The decentral participant identifier may uniquely identify the network participant and its associated decentral participant node within the decentral peer-to-peer network 136. The decentral participant identifier may include letters and / or numbers. The decentral participant identifier may include one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID(s)) and / or one or more Decentralized Identifier(s) (DID(s)). The decentral participant identifier may be associated with or may include a verifiable claim or credential. The verifiable claim may be issued by a central or decentral identity issuer making one or more claims about a subject, such as a participant being a trustworthy participant of the decentral network. For instance, the issuer may make a claim about a consumer (e.g. an entity operating data consuming network node(s)) the decentral participant identifier is associated with. The verifiable claim may include those claim(s) as well as proof instructions to prove that claim(s) have not been tampered with and were indeed issued by the claims issuer. The verifiable claim may also include duration information metadata that defines a period of time that the verifiable claim is valid for use or that defines a specific number of times that the verifiable claim is authorized for use. The verifiable claim may also include a DID of the claims issuer and / or the subject, such as a consumer entity. The verifiable claim may be signed by the claim's issuer. The claims issuer may provide the verifiable claim to a claim's holder, such as the consumer, for presentation to any relying party that relies upon the veracity of those claims, such as a data provider. The signature of the verifiable claim may be validated with a public key associated with the claims issuer to determine that the customer entity is a trusted entity within the decentral network.

[0169] The participants of the participant network 132 may be connected via material flows (depicted by bold solid lines in FIG. 1). The material flow may be a loop material flow 138. The loop material flow 138 may be a closed loop material flow. A closed 24 loop material flow may refer to a material loop where recycled material is used to produce the same end products the recycled material is obtained from via recycling. The loop material flow 138 may be an open loop material flow. An open loop material flow may refer to a material loop where recycled material is used to produce different end products than the one the recycled material is obtained from. The material flow may be a linear material flow 140 (e.g. not including recycling). The material flow 138, 140 may correspond to the flow of product from one participant of the participant network 132 to the downstream participant of the participant network 132. The material flow 138, 140 may refer to a continuous or a discontinuous flow of product. The flow of product may include any means of transportation suitable to transport the product from a participant to the downstream participant. The means of transportation may include pipes, containers, barrels, packages. The material flow 140 may be associated with virgin materials (e.g. materials not having undergone a recycling process). The virgin materials may be provided from virgin material producer 102 to chemical product producer 104 for producing chemical product(s) and / or intermediate chemical product(s). The material flow 138, 140 may be associated with recycled material(s) (e.g. materials having undergone a recycling process). The recycled material may be provided from recycler 116 to chemical product producer 104 to produce chemical product(s). The material flow 138, 140 may be associated with chemical intermediate product(s) and / or chemical product(s). The chemical intermediate product(s) and / or chemical product(s) may be provided from chemical product producer 104 to chemical product user 108 for producing further chemical product(s) and / or discrete product(s). In contrast to chemical production, the discrete products being produced are distinct units sold as individual products.

[0170] The participants of the participant network 132 may be associated with decentral participant network nodes 118 to 128. The decentral participant nodes 118 to 128 may be under control of the respective decentral participant associated with the respective decentral participant node 118 to 128. The decentral participant nodes 118 to 128 may form decentral network 136. The decentral network 136 may be a peer-to-peer communication network. The decentral peer-to-peer network 136 may be configured to perform data transactions 134 (e.g. depicted by dashed lines in FIG. 1) according to at least one network protocol. The data transactions 134 may be based on at least one transaction protocol including authentication and / or authorization mechanism(s). Based on the authentication and / or authorization mechanism(s) a peer-to-peer communication between decentral network nodes 118 to 128 associated with network participants 104 to 128 may be established. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) may be associated with or linked to decentral identifier(s) associated with input material data or output product data to be accessed, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14 and / or FIG. 19, and / or to the decentral participant identifiers. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with the decentral identifier and / or the decentral participant identifiers may be accessible by the decentral participant nodes 118 to 128 as described in the context of FIG. 14 and / or FIG. 19. The decentral configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and strengthens control by the data owners of the decentral network by allowing for data sovereignty.

[0171] Data transactions between decentral network participant nodes 118 to 128 may be based on a decentral identifier associated with respective input material data or product data to be accessed, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14 and / or FIG. 19. The decentral identifier may be uniquely associated with the physical entity of the input material and associated input material data. The decentral identifier may be uniquely associated with the physical entity of the product and associated product data. The decentral identifier may uniquely identify the respective input material or product within the 25 decentral network. The decentral identifier may be associated with further decentral identifier(s), such as decentral identifier(s) of input material(s) used to produce the product. This may allow to track the input material(s) used to produce a product, such as an end-product. The decentral identifier may be associated with a representation for accessing the input material data or the product data. In addition, data transactions between decentral network participant nodes 118 to 128 may be based on the decentral participant identifier associated with the decentral participant, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12A.

[0172] The data flow 134 between decentral network participant nodes 118 to 128 may be directly or indirectly associated with the material flow 138, 140 between the network participants 104 to 114. For instance, data flow 134 may be directly associated with material flow 138, 140 if data associated with an input material provided from the raw material producer 106 to the chemical product producer 104 is accessed by decentral participant node 118 associated with said chemical product producer 104. For instance, data flow 134 may be indirectly associated with material flow 138, 140 if data associated with a chemical product produced by chemical product producer 104 is accessed by decentral participant node 128 associated with recycler 114.

[0173] The decentral network 136 may include further decentral network nodes, such as node 130. The further decentral network nodes may not be associated with or operated by a participant 102 to 114 of the product ecosystem. The further decentral network nodes may be decentral service nodes. The decentral service nodes may provide services for network participants 102 to 114. Such services may include search services provided by search service provider(s) 116. The search service provider(s) 116 may provide search service(s) configured to provide search results related to data associated with input materials and produced output products available within the decentral network 136 satisfying received search query data. The search service provider(s) may provide the search service for participants of the participant network 132. The search service provider(s) may further provide the search service to participants of other participant network(s) and / or to third parties not being a participant of any participant network (e.g. further parties). In addition, the further decentral network nodes may be decentral infrastructure service nodes. The decentral infrastructure service nodes may provide infrastructure services for decentral participant nodes 118 to 130, such as verifying the identity of the decentral network participant nodes 118 to 130 prior to performing data transaction(s). The decentral network participant nodes 118 to 130 may be associated with or include certificate(s), such as X.509 certificate(s). The certificate(s) may be associated with decentral infrastructure service node(s) including e.g. a certificate issuing service and / or a dynamic provisioning service providing dynamic attribute tokens (e.g. OAuth Access Tokens). This way the decentral network participant nodes 118 to 130 may be associated with a unique identifier embedded in a X.509 certificate that identifies the respective decentral network participant node 118 to 130. The information required to verify the certificate may be provided via an authentication registry associated with the certificate issuing service and / or a dynamic provisioning service. For instance, in the IDSA Reference Architecture Model, Version 3.0 of April 2019, a decentral data providing network node associated with a data owner, a Certification Authority (CA), a Dynamic Attribute Provisioning Service (DAPS) and a decentral data consuming network node associated with a data consumer may be used to verify the identity prior to performing a data exchange (not shown). 26

[0174] The decentral participant nodes 118 to 130 may be decentral computing nodes. The decentral computing node may be any device or system that includes at least one physical and tangible processor, and a physical and tangible memory capable of having thereon computer-executable instructions that are executed by a processor. The memory may take any form of volatile or non-volatile storages and may depend on the nature and form of the computing node.

[0175] At least part of the decentral participant nodes 118 to 130 may be configured as decentral data providing network nodes. At least part of the participant nodes 118 to 130 may be configured as decentral data consuming network nodes. A participant of the decentral participant network 132 may be associated with a decentral data providing network node and / or a decentral data consuming network node depending on whether data is provided to participants (e.g. downstream participants and / or search service 116) and / or consumed from participants (e.g. upstream participants and / or search service 116). For instance, recycler 114 may be associated with a decentral data providing network node configured to provide recycled material data to a downstream participant (e.g. chemical product producer 104) for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. In addition to or alternatively, recycler 114 may be associated with a decentral data consuming network node configured to access input material data associated with input material(s) used to produce the end-product from upstream participants (e.g. chemical product producer 104, chemical product user 106 and / or end product producer 108).

[0176] FIG. 2 illustrates an example system and associated methods for generating and publishing output product data associated with output product(s) produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production in a decentral network. The output product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly, an endproduct or a recycled material. The decentral network may be decentral network 136 described in the context of FIG. 1 . The output product data may be generated and published according to the methods described in FIG. 7A to FIG. 8B. In the example of FIG. 2, the output product data may be generated and published by the output product producer. In another embodiment, the output product data may be generated and published by a third party on behalf of the output product producer (not shown in FIG. 2), e.g. asset generation system 218 may not be part of the operating system 214 of the production 202 but may be operated by a third party on behalf of the output product producer operating production 202.

[0177] The output product 206 may be produced or producible using one or more input material(s) 204. The output product may comprise or be any product produced by the production 202 and provided at any exit point of the production 202. Produced output product(s) may be physical entity / ies of output product(s) having been produced by the production. Producible output product(s) may not yet have been produced by the production but may be producible by one or more production process(es) performed within the production. Producible output product(s) may include output product(s) planned to be produced, for example based on demand data received from downstream participant(s) (e.g. output product user(s)).

[0178] The input material may include starting material used in a production process performed within production 202 to produce the output product. The production process may include one or more process steps. The input material may be used in any process step of the production process. Input material may include recycled material and / or virgin material. The input material may comprise or be any input material entering the production 202. The input material may comprise or be any input material provided at any entry point of the production 202. 240625

[0179] 27

[0180] The production may be a discrete production. The production 202 may be a chemical production. The chemical production may be a chemical production network. The chemical production network may include multiple interlinked processing steps. The chemical production network may be an integrated chemical production network with connected or interconnected production chains. The chemical production network may include multiple different production chains that have at least one intermediate product in common. The chemical production network may include multiple stages of the chemical value chain. The chemical production network may include the production, refining, processing and / or purification of chemical products. The chemical production network may include multiple production chains that produce from one or more input material(s) that enter the chemical production network multiple chemical products that exit the chemical production network. The chemical production network may include multiple tiers of a chemical value chain. The chemical production network may include physically connected or interconnected supply chains and / or production sites. The production sites may be at the same location or at different locations. In the latter case, the production sites may be connected or interconnected by means of dedicated transportation systems such as pipelines, supply chain vehicles, like trucks, ships or other cargo transportation means. The chemical production network may chemically convert input materials via chemical intermediates to one or more chemical product(s) that exit the chemical production network. The chemical production network may convert input material(s) by way of chemical conversion to one or more chemical product(s). The production 202 may be a discrete production.

[0181] The output product 206 may be produced or producible via one or more process steps from the input material(s) 204 within the production 202. The process steps may involve chemical reactions and / or physical processes and / or assembly processes involving the assembly of different discrete input material(s) and / or processes involving chemical input materials and discrete input materials, such as filling processes. The process steps may involve collection and / or sorting steps(s). The process step(s) may include repair, refurbish, repurpose and / or maintenance steps(s). The process step(s) may include recycling step(s). The input material may be used in one or more of such production step(s). The input materials 204 may enter the system boundary 212 of the production 202 at the entry point, such as a production plant or a material storage associated with the production 202. The amount of input material 204 entering the system boundary 212 of the production 202 may be measured, for example using sensor 208. Sensors 208 may include sensors configured to measure an amount of input material, such as a weight and / or a volume. Chemical and / or physical properties of the input material 204 may be measured, for example using sensor 210, upon passing system boundary 212 of the production 202. The measured data may be used to determine at least one chemical and / or physical property of the respective input material. Examples of chemical properties include heat of combustion, enthalpy of formation, toxicity, chemical stability in a given environment, flammability, oxidation state(s), ability to corrode, combustibility, acidity and basicity, chemical composition, recyclate content used for producing or manufacturing the input material, bio-based content used for producing or manufacturing the input material, renewable content used for producing or manufacturing the input material, biodegradability, and / or pH value. Examples of physical properties include absorption, brittleness, boiling point, capacitance, color, concentration, density, ductility, distribution, efficacy, elasticity, electric charge, electrical conductivity, electrical impedance, electric potential, flow rate, fluidity, hardness, heat capacity, inductance, intrinsic impedance, luminance, luminescence, luster, mass, melting point, opacity, permeability, permittivity, plasticity, pressure, radiance, resistivity, reflectivity, refractive index, solubility, specific heat, strength, stiffness, temperature, tension, thermal conductivity, thermal resistance, viscosity, volume and / or wave 240625

[0182] 28 impedance.

[0183] An operating system 214 of the production 202 may monitor and / or control the production 202 based on operating parameters of the different processes. The operating system 214 may receive production demand data associated with the production planning for the production 202. The production demand data may be produced from target production capacities for one or more output product(s) produced by the production 202. The production demand data may be produced from predefined production capacities or data-driven models that relate production capacities to market demand data or quantities consumed at the consumption location. The production demand data may include target capacities for output products produced by the production 202. The operating system 214 may further receive a bill of materials associated with output products to be produced. The bill of materials may include material data associated with the input materials used to produce the output product, process data associated with the production chain for producing the output product and / or output product data associated with the output product, such as a product specification data or data on the amount of output product to be produced.

[0184] Based on the received production demand data and the bill of materials, material demand data may be determined. The material demand data may include data on the amount of input material required to produce the target capacities of output product. The material demand data may include input material identifiers associated with input materials required to produce the output product and data on amounts of input material for respective input materials. The material demand data may include one or more material specifier(s) per input material identifier signifying the material specification. The material demand data may include data on the material amount per input material identifier signifying the amount of material to be supplied. The material demand data may specify the production chain(s) of the production 202. The material demand data may include a bill of materials for one or more production chain(s) of the production 202. The material demand data may include one or more recipe(s) specifying one or more material(s) for production process(es) of the production 202. The determined material demand data may be provided for access by a supplier system associated with a supplier outside the physical system boundary of the production 202. Material supply may be triggered by the supplier system accessing the material demand data.

[0185] The amount of output product(s) resulting from processes performed within production 202 may be measured using a sensor, such as sensor 208. The measured data may be stored in one or more databases associated with operating system 214 (not shown in FIG. 2, see for example data source layer 302 in FIG. 3A, FIG. 3B). Moreover processes performed within production 202 may be monitored using sensors and the generated monitoring data may be stored in one or more databases associated with operating system 214 (not shown in FIG. 2, see for example data source layer 302 in FIG. 3A, FIG. 3B). The monitoring data may be interrelated with a digital output product identifier associated with the respective output product 208. Physical and / or chemical properties of produced output products may be measured by sensors, such as sensors 210. Physical and / or chemical properties may include the properties previously described. The measured and / or determined chemical and / or physical properties of the produced output products may be stored in one or more databases associated with operating system 214 (not shown in FIG. 2, see for example data source layer 302 in FIG. 3A, FIG. 3B). The measured and / or determined chemical and / or physical properties of the produced output products may be interrelated with a digital 240625

[0186] 29 output product identifier associated with the respective output product.

[0187] The produced output products 206 may be provided at one or more exit points of the production 202. The output product 206 may exit the system boundary 212 of the production 202.

[0188] The operating system 214 may include asset generation system 218. The operating system 214 may be associated with asset generation system 218 (not shown). Asset generation system 218 may be configured to generate public output product data and to provide such public output product data for publishing in the decentral network, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A to FIG. 8B. Examples of asset generation systems 218 are illustrated in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B.

[0189] The asset generation system 218 may be configured to generate output product data set(s) (e.g. asset(s)) in response to receiving a trigger. The trigger may be associated with or may include trigger data. The trigger data may include data associated with the output product produced by production 202. The trigger may be generated by trigger generator 216. Trigger generator 216 may be part of a packaging line or may be present within a storage location, such as a warehouse. Trigger generator 216 may include sensor(s) configured to detect produced output product(s) and / or packaged output products. The sensor(s) may be configured to detect an identification element physically attached to the produced output product or the packaged output product. The sensor data may be used by trigger generator 216 to generate trigger data including data associated with the produced output product. Data associated with the produced output product may include a digital output product identifier associated with the produced output product. The trigger may be generated by a user, for example using a front-end application allowing to generate trigger data. The front-end application may display data associated with produced output products, such as output product name(s), output product quantities, output product identifiers, etc.. The data associated with the output product may be gathered from the one or more databases storing such data. The user may select output product(s) displayed by the front-end application. In response to selecting output product(s), a back-end application connected to the front-end application may generated the trigger data by collecting digital output product identifier(s) associated with the selected output product(s). The collected digital output product identifier(s) be used to generate the trigger data.

[0190] The assets may be generated by asset generator service 220 of asset generation system 218 in response to receiving the trigger. Asset generator service 220 may be configured to provide the generated assets to a database, such as assets DB 224, for storage. Assets DB 224 may store assets generated by asset generator service 220.

[0191] Asset generation system 218 may be configured to generate public output product data based on the generated assets and to provide such public output product data for publishing in the decentral network. Public output product data may include data publicly available within the decentral network and accessible by other participants of the decentral network and / or third parties without the data owner of the public output product data, such as the output product producer, being able to control or controlling access to such public output product data. Public output product data may include output product data not designated as confidential or proprietary by the data owner of the output product data. Public output product data may include data required to be made public to comply with regulatory requirements and / or requirements of the product 240625

[0192] 30 ecosystem including the output product. Public product data may include predefined chemical and / or physical properties of the output product, the output product name, the output product identifier, the decentral output product identifier, policy data indicating obligations, permissions and / or prohibitions for data consumers accessing the output product data or a combination thereof. Chemical and / or physical properties may be predefined using one or more rule(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B. This way, the data owner of the output product data may define which chemical and / or physical properties of the output product are published in the decentral network and which chemical and / or physical properties, such as carbon footprint data, recycled content data, biobased content data, composition data, are not published within the decentral network.

[0193] Output product data publisher service 222 of asset generation system 218 may be configured to generate the public output product data associated with output product(s) 206 based on the respective asset(s) stored in assets DB 224. Output product data publisher service 222 may be configured to generate the public output product data as described in the context of FIG. 7A to FIG. 8B. Examples of public output product data generated by output product data publisher service 222 are illustrated in FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B. Output product data publisher service 222 may be configured to publish the generated public output product data in the decentral network, such as decentral network 136. Publishing may include providing the generated public output product data via data providing node 118 associated with operating system 214 to data consuming node 130 of search service 116. Search service 116 may be operated by a search service provider. Search Service 116 may be configured to generate a search index from the received public output product data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9 to FIG. 10. Search service 116 may be configured to use such search index upon receiving query data via the decentral network to identify public output product data matching the received query data and to provide the identified public output product data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12A.

[0194] By generating public output product data based on criteria predefined by the data owner of the output product data, the data owner has full control over the data included in the public output product data. This way, the data owner of the output product data, such as the producer of the output product, can control which output product data is published in the decentral network and can be accessed without the data owner controlling access to such public output product data. Hence, only output product data is published in the decentral network that has been designated as public by the data owner of the output product data. By publishing output product data in the decentral network by the data owner of the output product data, such output product data is only made available to other participants of the decentral network and / or to third parties with explicit consent of the data owner of such output product data. This way, the output product data owner retains full control on the output product data that is published in the decentral network while at the same time ensuring that confidential output product data is not published in the decentral network and can only be accessed under control of the data owner, for example via a peer-to-peer communication between the data owner and the data consumer. Publishing output product data in the decentral network allows the data owner to retain full control over the data that is published while at the same time ensuring that output product data is publicly available in the decentral network, allowing other participants of the decentral network and / or third parties to query such output product data to obtain information on output products and confidential output product data available for access under control of the data owner of the output product data. This way, a more efficient identification of output product data is achieved in the decentral network by avoiding querying the complete 240625

[0195] 31 decentral network for such information while retaining the control of the data owners of the respective output product data with respect to the amount of output product data published in the decentral network. This contrasts with crawling schemes using publicly available data without the explicit consent of the data owner to use such data to provide search services based on such available data.

[0196] FIG. 3A illustrates an example system for generating and publishing output product data associated with output product(s) produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production in a decentral network. The example system illustrated in FIG. 3A may be included in the operating system 214 described in the context of FIG. 2. The output product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly, an end-product or a recycled material. The output product data may be generated and published according to the methods described in FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B. The system for generating and publishing output product data may be part of an operating system associated with the production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2. The system for generating and publishing output product data may be associated with an operating system associated with the production. The production may be a chemical production or a discrete production. The chemical production may be a chemical production network as described in the context of FIG. 2.

[0197] With reference to FIG. 2, a trigger may be generated by trigger generator 216 and / or may be received from a user. The trigger or trigger data may be received by data gathering unit 310 of asset generation system 218. Data gathering unit 310 may be connected to a data source layer 302. The data source layer 302 may include one or more databases, such as DB 1 304 , DB 2 306 and DB 3 308. The databases may be distributed data sources. The distributed data source may be a data lake comprising output product data from a plurality of distributed data sources. A distributed data source may be a collection of data stored at different sites of a computer network. Each site might expose a degree of autonomy, providing services for the execution of local applications, but also participating in the execution of a global application. For instance, a distributed data source may be a distributed database. A distributed database can be created by splitting and scattering the data of an existing database over different sites or by federating together multiple existing databases. Each data source may contain only a fragment of the data associated with the chemical product. This leads to a fragmentation of said data. Two common types of data fragmentation are horizontal fragmentation, wherein (possibly overlapping) subsets of data tuples are stored at different sites; and vertical fragmentation, wherein (possibly overlapping) subtuples of data tuples are stored at different sites. More generally, the data associated with the output product may be fragmented into a set of relations (tables of a relational database, distributed across multiple sites). The one or more distributed data sources may contain output product data associated with produced output products. The output product data may include output product identifier(s), property data associated with the output product, the output product name, the output product producer, output product declaration data, output product safety data, emission data associated with the output product, recyclate content data associated with the output product, biobased content data associated with the output product, production data associated with the output product, certificate of analysis data associated with the output product, certificates associated with the output product, life cycle data associated with the output product, storage instruction data associated with the output product, assembly instructions associated with the output product, operating conditions associated with the output product or a combination thereof. At least one of the distributed data sources may contain data instances that relate to the output product for which the system 218 is configured to generate output product data set(s) and output product data for publishing in the decentral network. The data source layer 302 may be owned or controlled by the data owner of the data stored in such data source layer 302. The data owner of the data stored in the data source layer may have access to such data source layer 302. The data source layer 302 may be part of the operating system 214 illustrated in FIG. 2. The data source layer 302 may be associated with the operating system 214 illustrated in FIG. 2. The data source layer 302 may be associated with the data owner of the data stored in such data source layer 302. Data gathering unit 310 may be configured to gather output product data based on received trigger data (e.g. data associated with produced output products) from the data source layer 302, for example as described in the context of FIG. 7B. The gathered output product data may include property data associated with the output product, the output product name, the output product producer, output product declaration data, output product safety data, emission data associated with the output product, recyclate content data associated with the output product, biobased content data associated with the output product, production data associated with the output product, certificate of analysis data associated with the output product, certificates associated with the output product, life cycle data associated with the output product, storage instruction data associated with the output product, assembly instructions associated with the output product, operating conditions associated with the output product or a combination thereof.

[0198] The output product data gathered by data gathering unit 310 may be provided to data transforming unit 312. Data transforming unit 312 may be configured to generate an output product data set identifier (e.g. an asset identifier) decentral identifier. The asset identifier may uniquely identify the output product data set within the production.

[0199] Data transforming unit 312 may be configured to generate transformed output product data by transforming output product data gathered by data gathering unit 310 based on one or more rule(s) retrieved from rule DB 314 and linking the output product data set identifier to the transformed data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 7B. Transforming may include filtering the gathered output product data, aggregating output product data gathered from multiple data sources, transforming gathered output product data into a given format, attribute construction to create or add new attributes to the output product data based on existing attributes, discretization to convert continuous output product data values into sets of data intervals with specific values, generalization of gathered output product data to convert low-level data attributes into high-level data attributes, manipulation to change or alter gathered output product data and / or normalization to convert output product data into another format to limit the occurrence of duplicated data.

[0200] The rule(s) may define key-value pair(s) to be included in the generated output product data. The rule(s) may define value(s) to be included in the generated output product data. The rule(s) may define unit(s) for data point(s) and / or one or more conversion(s) to convert a unit associated with a data point into another unit. The rule(s) may define key-value pair(s) for property data, output product identifier data, output product name data, output product producer data, output product declaration data, output product safety data, emission data, recyclate content data, biobased content data, biodegradability data, production data, certificate of analysis data, certificate data, life cycle data, storage instruction data, assembly instruction data and / or operating condition data. A rule may define key-value pairs for per data category. A rule may define key-value pairs for at least two different data categories. A data category may signify property data, declaration data, safety data, emission data, recyclate content data, biobased content data, biodegradability data, production data, certificate of 240625

[0201] 33 analysis data, certificate data, storage instruction data, assembly instruction data or operating condition data. Gathered data may be aggregated and filtered to extract the value(s) matching the key(s) defined in the rule(s) from the aggregated data The generated output product data sets may include one or more data points. The output product data sets may include one or more key-value pairs. The generated output product data sets may include at least a part of the gathered output product data. The generated output product data set(s) may include output product property data point(s), output product identifier data point(s), output product name data point(s), output product producer data point(s), output product declaration data point(s), output product safety data point(s), output product emission data point(s), output product recyclate content data point(s), output product biobased content data point(s), output product biodegradability data point(s), output product production data point(s), output product certificate of analysis data point(s), output product certificate data point(s) , output product life cycle data point(s), output product storage instruction data point(s), output product assembly instruction data point(s) and / or output product operating condition data point(s).

[0202] Data transforming unit 312 may further be configured to generate an output product data set by assigning a confidentiality level to at least part of the transformed data. The confidentiality level may be assigned in response to a user input (not shown in FIG. 2). The confidentiality level may be assigned based on one or more rule(s) retrieved from rule DB 314, for example as described in the context of FIG. 7B. The confidentiality level may be assigned based on received user input. Data transforming unit 312 may be configured to provide the output product data set for display, for example to a display device. The display device may be configured to display the received output product data set within a user interface. The user interface may allow the user to set confidentiality level(s) for one or more data point(s) and / or attribute(s) included in the output product data set. Data transforming unit 312 may be configured to receive a user input indicating confidentiality level(s) for at least a part of the data included in the output product data set. Based on the user input, data transforming unit 312 may be configured to assign confidentiality level(s) to at least a part of the data included in the output product data set based on the received user input. The rule(s) may define confidentiality level(s) for data point(s) and / or attribute(s) included in the output product data set. The confidentiality level may signify or indicate the degree of confidentiality of such data point(s) and / or attribute(s). The confidentiality level may be used to discriminate between public output product data, e.g. output product data for publishing in the decentral network, and proprietary output product data (e.g. output product data not to be published in the decentral network). The confidentiality level may be used to discriminate between public output product data, proprietary output product data for sharing (e.g. output product data that may be shared with predefined participants of the decentral network upon request but which may not be published in the decentral network) and proprietary output product data (e.g. output product data which is not shared within the decentral network). The confidentiality level(s) may be assigned per data point. The confidentiality level(s) may be assigned per data class.

[0203] With reference to FIG. 4A, the output product data set(s) 402 may include an output product data set identifier 410 at least a part of the transformed output product data and the assigned confidentiality level(s) 406. The output product data set may be a digital twin of the product or a part of such digital twin. The digital twin may be a digital representation of a physical entity of the output product with a defined semantic description of said physical entity of the output product. The digital twin of the physical entity of the output product is hence a digital version of said physical entity. Once created, the digital twin may be used to represent the physical entity of the output product in a digital representation of a real-world system. The digital twin 240625

[0204] 34 may be uniquely linked to the output physical product via at least the decentral digital twin identifier. The digital twin may be created such that it is identical in form and behavior of the corresponding output product. Additionally, the digital twin may mirror the properties of the output product during its lifetime. For example, sensors may capture real-time (or near real-time) data, such as transport data or use data, from the physical output product to relay it back to a remote digital twin. Sensor may include hard sensors and / or soft sensors. The digital twin may then be updated to maintain its correspondence to the physical entity of the output product. Hence, the digital twin may at any time represent the current state of the physical entity of the output product.

[0205] The confidentiality level may be assigned per data class or per data point (not shown in FIG. 4A). Different confidentiality levels may be assigned for different data classes. The data class may relate to production data, property data, emission data, safety data, declaration data, certificate of analysis data, recycled content data, biobased content data, renewable content data, biodegradability data, producer data, composition data, packaging data, transport data, handling instruction data, usage data or combinations thereof. The data class may include access-restricted (e.g. output product data not to be published) output product data and / or non-access restricted output product data (e.g. output product data not to be published). For example, the confidentiality level “public” may be assigned to the producer name of the output product while the confidentiality level “proprietary for sharing” may be assigned to emission data, such as carbon footprint data, of the output product. The output product data set(s) may include at least a part of the gathered or transformed output product data and the assigned confidentiality level(s) in tabular form. The output product data set(s) may correspond to JSON files including the transformed output product data and assigned confidentiality level(s) as key-value pairs. Use of rule(s) associated with a product produced from such output product(s) allows to ensure that output product data point(s) required according to a semantic model, such as a data model or aspect model, associated with the product are contained in the output product data set, hence avoiding missing data point(s) during generation of a product passport associated with the product using said semantic model. The data transformation allows to transform data from a first semantic domain into a given second semantic domain. The second semantic domain may be associated with a data model used within the decentral network. The second semantic domain may be associated with a data model of the product used within the decentral network. The transformation allows to aggregate the gathered output product into a given data format, such as a tabular format or a JSON format, without the use of complex semantic models, hence facilitating generation and sharing of output product data set(s) within the product ecosystem. Such sharing may enable more efficient production and / or recycling processes based on the shared output product data, for instance output product composition data. The tabular format can be readily consumed via a decentral network by a consumer backend configured to verify the consumed data and to persist verified consumed data to data storages for generation of product passports (see for example FIG. 15). Verification by the consumer side ensures that the product passport contains all data required by a semantic model used to generate such passport, hence allowing to reduce the complexity associated with the output product data set generation at the provider side by avoiding the use of complex semantic models during generation of the output product data set(s). This may enable reliable sharing of output product data of output product(s) irrespective of the existence of semantic models for such output products since the rule(s) required to transform the gathered output product data may be readily derived from existing semantic model associated with the product. 240625

[0206] 35

[0207] Use of rule(s) associated with confidentiality level(s) allows to define which output product data within a given output product data set is published within the decentral network and which data is not published within the decentral network. This way, the data owner of the output product data set may control publishing of the output product data and hence also the output product data that is available within the decentral network, for example via search service 116 described in the context of FIG. 1 and FIG. 9 to FIG. 12B.

[0208] Returning to FIG. 3A, data transforming unit 312 may further be configured to provide the generated output product data set(s) to data provider unit 316. Data provider unit 316 may be configured to provide the received output product data set(s) to a database for storage, such as assets DB 224. The asset(s) may be persisted by data provider unit 316 in assets DB 224. Assets DB 224 may be configured to store output product data set(s) provided by data provider unit 316. Assets DB 224 may be configured to store output product data set(s) for access by data consumer(s). Assets DB 224 may be under control of the data owner of the assets stored in assets DB 224. Access to assets DB 224 may be controlled by the data owner of the assets stored in assets DB 224. Access to assets DB 224 may be controlled by the data owner of the assets stored in assets DB 224 via the decentral identifiers associated with the output product data stored in assets DB 224. Assets DB 224 may be configured to provide output product data set(s) to output product data publisher service 222.

[0209] Output product data publisher service 222 may be configured to generate output product data for publishing in the decentral network (e.g. public output product data), such as decentral network 136 described in the context of FIG. 1. Output product data publisher service 222 may be configured to generate the public output product data according to the method described in the context of FIG. 7A. Output product data publisher service 222 may include public data generator 502 and public data provider 504 as described in the context of FIG. 5. Output product data publisher service 222 may be configured to generate the public output product data based on the assets stored in assets DB 224 and optionally access data associated with the respective assets provided by asset publisher service 318.

[0210] With reference to FIG. 6A to FIG. 60, the public output product data generated by output product data publisher service 222 may include an identifier 608 associated with the public output product data. The public output product data may further include the data point(s) associated with a predefined confidentiality level, for example with the confidentiality level “public”. Public output product data 602 illustrated in FIG. 6A may be used by the output product data owner, such as the output product producer, as advertisement for output products within the decentral network since the public output product data 602 may not allow to directly connect to the output product data associated with the public output product data (e.g. the output product data set(s) used to generate the public output product data). The public output product data 602 illustrated in FIG. 6A may not be directly linked to a physical entity of an output product but may be linked to an output product name, such as a trade name, used by the output product producer for a given output product. Data consumers wanting to connect to a specific output product data offer associated with the public output product data need to contact the data owner or need to query the decentral network for provider node(s) and specific output product data offer(s) associated with the public output product data. 240625

[0211] 36

[0212] In the example illustrated in FIG. 6B and FIG. 60, the public output product data may further include the decentral identifier of the output product data set 410, the name of the data model associated with the generation of the output product data used to generate the public output product data and access data provided by asset publisher service 318. The public output product data 604 illustrated in FIG. 6B may further include the endpoint of the data providing node providing the output product data associated with the public output product data. This way, a data consumer may directly connect to the data providing node to consume the output product data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14 and FIG. 15. Public output product data 604 illustrated in FIG. 6B may be used by the output product data owner to indicate data offer(s) for output product data to third parties, such as participants of the decentral network 136. Based on the public output product data 604, data consumer(s) may directly connect to the data providing node providing the output product data associated with the public output product data.

[0213] In the example illustrated in FIG. 6C, the public output product data 612 may include, apart from the data mentioned with respect to FIG. 6B data associated with proprietary output product data available from the data owner 606. Proprietary output product data may include output product data point(s) or part(s) of the output product data not to be shared and / or to be shared under control of the data owner of the output product data. Such data associated with proprietary output product data may include an indication that proprietary data for sharing, such as emission data (see for example FIG. 4A, FIG. 4B), is available for access at the data owner of the public output product data, the type of the available proprietary data, the decentral participant identifier of such data owner and / or the endpoint of the data providing node providing the output product data associated with the public output product data (e.g. the output product data used to generate the public output product data). This further data 606 allows participants of the decentral network accessing such public output product data 602, 604 to determine which further data is available at the data owner without the data owner having to share details on such data. Public output product data 612 illustrated in FIG. 6C may be used by the output product data owner to indicate a willingness to share proprietary output product data with participants of the decentral network. Based on the public output product data 612, data consumer(s) may directly connect to the data providing node providing the output product data associated with the public output product data.

[0214] Returning to FIG. 3A, output product data publisher service 222 may be configured to provide the generated public output product data to data providing node 118 for publishing in the decentral network. Data providing node 118 may provide the received public output product data to search service 116, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9.

[0215] Data provider unit 316 may further be configured to provide data included in the generated output product data set(s), such as the decentral identifier, to asset publisher service 318.

[0216] Asset publisher service 318 may be configured to generate group access data associated with the respective output product data set. The group access data may identify access control groups including decentral participant identifier(s) associated with decentral network participants permitted to access at the respective output product data set. The group access data may include a group access data identifier and the decentral identifier. The group access data may further identify policy data defining permissions, prohibitions and / or obligations of data consumers of the output product data set. Asset publisher 240625

[0217] 37 service 318 may further be configured to generate group access data associated with the output product data to be published. This way, the data owner may control the publication of the output product data to be published, for example via search service 116. Asset publisher service 318 may further be configured to generate access data including the decentral identifier and the group access data identifier. The access data may hence be associated with the output product data set as well as respective group access data. The access data may further include a digital representation for accessing the output product data set. The digital representation may include a locator or pointer to the assets DB 224 storing the respective output product data set. This may allow to access the respective output product data set based on data included in the access data, e.g. the decentral identifier and the digital representation. The group access data and access data may be generated by asset publisher service 318 per output product data set stored in assets DB 224. The generated group access data and access data (denoted as access data in FIG. 3A) may be provided to decentral data providing node 118 connected to asset generation system 218. Asset publisher service 318 may further be configured to generate a decentral identifier including the output product data set identifier linked and the endpoint of provider node 118. Asset publisher service 318 may further be configured to request registration of the generated output product data set(s) with data consumer(s), such as backend 1214 illustrated in FIG. 15, at provider node 118.

[0218] Decentral data providing node 118 may be part of a decentral network, such as decentral network 136 described in the context of FIG. 1. Decentral data providing node 118 may be configured to register output product data set(s) at data provider(s) in response to a request received from asset publisher service 318. Registration may include establishing a peer- to-peer connection with consumer node(s) and providing the decentral identifier associated with the output product data set(s) to such consumer node(s). This way, data provider(s) do not have to operate decentral registries being accessible for other participants of the decentral network and storing representation(s) for accessing the output product data set(s). Decentral data providing node 118 may be configured to provide output product data set(s) in response to a request received from decentral data consuming node(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 15. Decentral data providing node 118 may be configured to control access to output product data set(s) based on associated group access data and access data generated by asset publisher service 318. Node 118 may be configured to determine whether data consuming node(s) requesting access to the output product data set based on the decentral identifier are allowed to access such data or not by comparing the decentral participant identifier(s) provided by such node(s) to decentral participant identifier(s) included in the access group data. If requesting data consuming node(s) are not allowed to access the output product data set, node 118 may terminate the peer-to-peer connection without providing the output product data set. Node 118 may be configured to gather policy data upon receiving a request to access the output product data set by determining such policy data based on the group access data and the decentral identifier. The policy data may be provided to the data consuming node(s) requesting access for agreement, e.g. by way of an electronic contract. This way, it can be ensured that the data consumer(s) adhere to permissions, prohibitions and / or obligations defined by the data owner of the output product data set for such output product data set. Decentral data providing node 118 may be associated with the data owner of the output product data, such as the output product producer. Node 118 may be associated with the operating system 214 of the production producing the output product, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2. 240625

[0219] 38

[0220] Data transfer service 320 may be configured to gather output product data set(s) from assets DB 224 in response to a request from decentral data providing node 118. Data transfer service 320 may be configured to fetch asset metadata from assets DB 224 based on data received from decentral data providing node 118. Data transfer service 320 may be configured to parse the fetched metadata to determine group access data associated with the respective output product data set and / or the storage location of the respective output product data set. Data transfer service 320 may be configured to gather respective output product data set(s) from assets DB 224 based on the fetched metadata. Data transfer service 320 may be configured to provide the gathered output product data set(s) to decentral data providing node 118.

[0221] The system may not comprise a decentral registry, such as a digital twin registry, storing access elements including the decentral identifier and a representation for accessing the output product data set(s) stored in assets DB 224. Hence, output product data set(s) may only be located via the public output product data published under control of the data owner of the output product data. This way, the output product data owner may control what data is publicly available to participants of the decentral network and / or third parties via the search service 116. Hence, sharing of output product data in a reliable yet secure manner under control of the data owner of the output product data is ensured while avoiding publication of the output product data or the use of public output product data without the consent of the output product data owner. This is in contrast to search providers using crawling techniques to gather publicity available data from data owners without the explicit consent of such data owners.

[0222] FIG. 3B illustrates another example system for generating and publishing output product data associated with output product(s) produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production in a decentral network. The example system illustrated in FIG. 3B may be included in the operating system 214 described in the context of FIG. 2. The output product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly, an end-product or a recycled material. The output product data may be generated and published according to the methods described in FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B. The system for generating and publishing output product data may be part of an operating system associated with the production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2. The system for generating and publishing output product data may be associated with an operating system associated with the production. The production may be a chemical production or a discrete production. The chemical production may be a chemical production network as described in the context of FIG. 2.

[0223] In contrast to the system illustrated in FIG. 3A, the system illustrated in FIG. 3B generates output product data set(s) by applying one or more data model(s) to output product data gathered from data source layer 302. The data model(s) may be data model(s) defined by a decentral data space, such as decentral network 136.

[0224] With reference to FIG. 2, a trigger may be generated by trigger generator 216 and / or may be received from a user. The trigger or trigger data may be received by data gathering unit 310 of asset generation system 218. Data gathering unit 310 may be connected to a data source layer 302, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The data source layer 302 may include one or more databases, such as DB 1 304 , DB 2 306 and DB 3 308. The databases may be distributed data sources as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The one or more distributed data sources may contain output product data 240625

[0225] 39 associated with produced output products as described in the context of FIG. 3A. Data gathering unit 310 may be configured to gather output product data based on received trigger data (e.g. data associated with produced output products) from the data source layer 302, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8B. The gathered output product data may include the data described in the context of FIG. 3B. The output product data gathered by data gathering unit 310 may be provided to asset generator 322.

[0226] Asset generator 322 may be configured to generate output product data set(s) including a decentral identifier associated with the output product data and the output product data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8B. Generating output product data set(s) may include requesting a decentral identifier and applying one or more data model(s) to the decentral identifier and the output product data received from data gathering unit 310. Asset generator 322 may be configured to request a decentral identifier from decentral ID generator 324. The request may include an output product identifier associated with the output product data. Decentral ID generator 324 may be configured to generate the decentral identifier upon receiving a request from asset generator 322 and to provide the generated decentral identifier to asset generator 322. The decentral identifier may comprise any unique identifier uniquely associated with the transformed output product data, the output product and optionally the data owner of the transformed output product data. The decentral identifier may include one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID(s)) or one or more Digital Identifier(s) (DID(s)). The decentral identifier may be issued by a central or decentral identity issuer. The decentral identifier may include authentication information. Via the decentral identifier and its unique association with the with the output product and transformed output product data, access to the transformed output product data may be controlled by the producer of the output product. This contrasts with central authority schemes, where identifiers are provided by such central authority and access to data is controlled by such central authority. Decentral in this context refers to the usage of the decentral identifier as controlled by the data owner of the data the decentral identifier is associated with. The data owner may refer to the owner of the transformed output product data. Decentral ID generator 324 may be configured to link the generated decentral identifier to the output product identifier. This way, the decentral identifier may be associated with the output product identifier and hence with the request received from asset generator 322, allowing asset generator 322 to assign the decentral identifier received from decentral ID generator 324 to the respective output product data.

[0227] Asset generator 322 may be configured to generate output product data set(s) by applying one or more data model(s) stored in model DB 326 to the output product data received from data gathering unit 310 and the decentral identifier received from decentral ID generator 324. Asset generator 322 may be configured to apply at least two data model(s) stored in model DB 326 to the output product data received from data gathering unit 310 resulting in the generation of at least two output product data sets. The generated output product data sets may each contain the decentral identifier(s) provided by decentral ID generator 324. Asset generator 322 may be configured to gather data model(s) based on the gathered output product data. For instance, asset generator 322 may gather data model(s) based on the output product identifier, the output product class and / or data point(s) included in the output product data.

[0228] The data model(s) may contain a semantic description of the data set resulting from application of the data model to data, such as output product data. Hence, the data model(s) may define the data points and data structure of the data resulting 40 from application of the data model to gathered data. The semantic description may include the structure of at least a portion of the output product data set, and / or properties of the output product data set. The properties of the output product data set may include data types. The properties of the output product data set may include possible or allowable values and / or value ranges. The properties of the output product data set may be a physical unit of parameter(s) described by values contained in the output product data set. The properties of the output product data set may include one or more attribute(s). Data model(s) stored in model DB 326 may relate to or define product packaging data, certificate of analysis data, environmental property data, production data, chemical and / or physical property data, certificate data, data on the supplier of input materials, transport data associated with the transport of the output product, data on the registration of the output product, or a combination thereof. The data model(s) may relate to an output product class. The output product class may define a chemical class the output product is associated with.

[0229] Environmental property data may include emission data, recyclate content data, bio-based content data and / or renewable content data. Emission data may comprise any data related to environmental footprint. The environmental footprint may refer to an entity and its associated environmental footprint. The environmental footprint may be entity specific. For instance, the environmental footprint may relate to a product, a company, a process such as a manufacturing process, a raw material or basic substance, a chemical product or material, a component, a component assembly, an end product, combinations thereof or additional entity-specific relations. Emission data may include data relating to the carbon footprint of the product or a Product Carbon Footprint (PCF). Emission data may include data relating to greenhouse gas emissions e.g. released in production of the product. Emission data may include data related to greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions may include emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, methane (CH4) emission, nitrous oxide (N2O) emission, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) emission, perfluorocarbons (PFCs) emission, sulfur hexafluoride (SFe) emission, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) emission, combinations thereof and additional emissions. Emission data may include data related to greenhouse gas emissions of an entities or companies own operations (production, power plants and waste incineration). Scope 2 may comprise emissions from energy production which is sourced externally. Scope 3 may comprise all other emissions along the value chain. Specifically, this may include the greenhouse gas emissions of raw materials obtained from suppliers. Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) may sum up greenhouse gas emissions and removals from the consecutive and interlinked process steps related to a particular product. Cradle-to-gate PCF may sum up greenhouse gas emissions based on selected process steps: e.g. from the extraction of resources up to the factory gate where the product leaves the company. Such PCFs may be called partial PCFs. In order to achieve such summation, each company providing any products may provide the scope 1 and scope 2 contributions to the PCF for each of its products. Recyclate content data, biobased content data and renewable content data may comprise any data related to the recyclate content or the bio-based content or the renewable content used for producing or manufacturing a physical entity of the product.

[0230] The output product data set (e.g. an output product data asset) generated by asset generator 322 may include the decentral identifier associated with the output product data and the output product data transformed according to the data model. Examples of output data set(s) generated by 322 are illustrated in FIG. 4B. The output product data set 404 may include the decentral identifier 414 and one or more confidentiality level(s) associated with one or more data point(s) included in the output product data set 404. The output product data set may correspond to a digital twin of the output product or to a part or 41 such digital twin as described in the context of FIG. 3B.

[0231] Asset generator 322 may be configured to provide the generated output product data set(s) to assets DB 224. Assets DB 224 may store output product data sets (e.g. assets) received from asset generator 322, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A. Assets DB 224 may be configured to store output product data set(s) for access by data consumer(s). Assets DB 224 may be under control of the data owner of the assets stored in assets DB 224. Access to assets DB 224 may be controlled by the data owner of the assets stored in assets DB 224. Access to assets DB 224 may be controlled by the data owner of the assets stored in assets DB 224 via the decentral identifiers associated with the output product data stored in assets DB 224. Assets DB 224 may be configured to provide output product data set(s) to node 118 upon request from node 118.

[0232] Output product data publisher service 222 may be configured to generate public output product data for publishing in the decentral network, such as decentral network 136 described in the context of FIG. 1. Output product data publisher service 222 may be configured to generate the public output product data according to the method described in the context of FIG. 8A. Output product data publisher service 222 may include public data generator 502 and public data provider 504 as described in the context of FIG. 5. Output product data publisher service 222 may be configured to generate the public output product data based on the assets stored in assets DB 224 and access data associated with the respective assets provided by asset publisher service 318.

[0233] With reference to FIG. 6A to FIG. 60, the public output product data generated by output product data publisher service 222 may include an identifier 608 associated with the public output product data. The public output product data may further include the data point(s) associated with a predefined confidentiality level, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A. In the example of FIG. 6B, the public output product data 604 may further include the name of the data model(s) used to generate the output product data set and the access data provided by asset publisher service 318. The public output product data 612 illustrated in FIG. 60 may further include data associated with proprietary data available from the data owner 606, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A.

[0234] Returning to FIG. 3B, output product data publisher service 222 may be configured to provide the generated public output product data to data providing node 118 for publishing in the decentral network. Data providing node 118 may provide the received public output product data to search service 116, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9.

[0235] Asset generator 322 may further be configured to provide data included in the generated output product data set(s), such as the decentral identifier, to asset publisher service 318.

[0236] Asset publisher service 318 may be configured to generate group access data associated with the respective output product data set, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A. Asset publisher service 318 may further be configured to generate access data including the decentral identifier and the group access data identifier, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The generated group access data and access data (denoted as access data in FIG. 3B) may be provided 240625

[0237] 42 to decentral data providing node 118 connected to asset generation system 218.

[0238] Decentral data providing node 118 may be part of a decentral network, such as decentral network 136 described in the context of FIG. 1. Decentral data providing node 118 may be configured to provide output product data set(s) in response to a request received from decentral data consuming node(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 15. Decentral data providing node 118 may be configured to control access to output product data set(s) based on associated group access data and access data generated by asset publisher service 318 as described in the context of FIG. 3A. Decentral data providing node 118 may be associated with the data owner of the output product data, such as the output product producer. Node 118 may be associated with the operating system 214 of the production producing the output product, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2.

[0239] The system may not comprise a decentral registry, such as a digital twin registry, storing access elements including the decentral identifier and a representation for accessing the output product data set(s) stored in assets DB 224. Hence, output product data set(s) may only be located via the public output product data published under control of the data owner of the output product data. This way, the output product data owner may control what data is publicly available to participants of the decentral network and / or third parties via the search service 116. Hence, sharing of output product data in a reliable yet secure manner under control of the data owner of the output product data is ensured while avoiding publication of the output product data or the use of public output product data without the consent of the output product data owner. This is in contrast to search providers using crawling techniques to gather publicity available data from data owners without the explicit consent of such data owners.

[0240] FIG. 5 illustrates an example system for generating and providing public output product data associated with output product(s) produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production. The public output product data may be provided for publishing in a decentral network, such as decentral network 136 described in the context of FIG. 1. The public output product data may represent a portion or part of the output product data that is made publicly available within the decentral network, e.g. other participants of the decentral network and / or third parties may access such data without the data owner of such public output product data, such as the output product producer, controlling access to such data. The public output data may include public output product data described in the context of FIG. 2, FIG. 3A, FIG. 3B, FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B.

[0241] The output product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly, an end-product or a recycled material. The production may be a chemical production or a discrete production. The chemical production may be a chemical production network as described in the context of FIG. 2. The example system illustrated in FIG. 5 may be included in the asset generation system described in the context of FIG. 2 to FIG. 3B. The public output product data may be generated and provided by the system of FIG. 5 according to the methods described in FIG. 7A and FIG. 8A. 240625

[0242] 43

[0243] Output product data publisher service 222 may include public data generator 502 configured to generate the public output product data. Examples of public output data generated by public data generator 502 are illustrated in FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B. Output product data publisher service 222 may further include public data provider 504 configured to provide the generated public output product data for publishing in the decentral network. In another example, output product data publisher service 222 may include a unit configured to generate public output product data and to provide the generated public output product data for publishing in the decentral network (not shown in FIG. 5). Output product data publisher service 222 may be coupled, for example via communication interfaces, to asset publisher service 318 configured to provide policy data, assets DB 224 storing output product data sets and data provider node 118 configured to provide the public output product data to search service 116 to make such data publicly available within the decentral network. Output product data publisher service 222 may further be coupled to I / O device 506 comprising a user interface 508 and / or rule DB 328.

[0244] Public data generator 502 may be configured to generate the public output product data based on the output product data stored in assets DB 224 and the access data provided by asset publisher service 318, for example using the method described in the context of FIG. 7A. The output product data sets stored in assets DB 224 may include a decentral identifier, transformed output product data and confidentiality level(s) associated with at least a part of the transformed output product data. Public data generator 502 may be configured to generate the public output product data based on the confidentiality level(s) included in such output product data sets and access data provided by asset publisher service 318. Public data generator 502 may be configured to gather access data associated with the respective output product data set based on the decentral identifier included in the output product data set. Public data generator 502 may be configured to generate the public output product data set in response to receiving an indication that an output product data set has been stored in assets DB 224. Such indication may be received via a stream storage system present between output product data publisher service 222 and assets DB 224 (not shown in FIG. 5).

[0245] The stream storage system may be configured to store data gathered from assets DB 224. The stream storage system may be configured to provide the stored data to public data generator 502. The stream storage system may comprise one or more persistent or non-persistent logs. Records stored in said logs may be ordered, for example by using IDs. This allows to identify a record within a specific log. The stream storage system may collectively provide a streaming service or stream processing service between one or more streaming sources (e.g. assets DB 224) and one or more streaming sinks (e.g. logs). The stream storage system may act as a persistent or non-persistent stream sink for assets stored in assets DB 224. For example, open-source software systems such as Apache Kafka ("Kafka") may act as stream storage system. Assets DB 224 may be configured to provide assets to the stream storage system. The stream storage system may be configured to pull assets from assets DB 224, for example at regular time intervals. Public data generator 502 may be connected to one or more persistent or non-persistent logs of the stream storage system to ingest assets and to generate the public output product data. The stream storage system may be in a publisher-subscriber relationship with public data generator 502.

[0246] Public data generator 502 may be configured to generate the public output product data based on the output product data stored in assets DB 224, user input received from I / O device 506 and the policy data provided by asset publisher service 318, for example using the method described in the context of FIG. 7A. Public data generator 502 may be configured to 240625

[0247] 44 gather output product data set(s) stored in assets DB 224 and provide the gathered output product data set(s) to I / O device 506. Public data generator 502 may gather the output product data set(s) from one or more persistent or non-persistent logs of a stream storage system as previously described. I / O device 506 may be configured to display the output product data set(s) received from public data generator 502 within a user interface 508. The user interface may display at least a part of the data points included in the received output product data set(s). The user interface may provide the functionality for the user to assign confidentiality level(s) to at least a part of the data included in the output product data set(s). The I / O device 506 may be configured to detect user input(s) indicative of assigning confidentiality level(s) to at least a part of the data included in the output product data set(s). I / O device 506 may provide user input data indicative of the user input to public data generator 502. The user input data may be associated with an output product identifier or the decentral identifier to allow linking of the user input to the respective output product data set. Public data generator 502 may be configured to assign the confidentiality level(s) to the output product data set(s) based on the user input data received from I / O device 506.

[0248] Public data generator 502 may be configured to generate the public output product data based on the output product data stored in assets DB 224, rule(s) stored in rule DB 314 and the access data provided by asset publisher service 318, for example using the method described in the context of FIG. 8A. Public data generator 502 may gather the output product data set(s) from one or more persistent or non-persistent logs of a stream storage system as previously described. Public data generator 502 may comprise a rule-engine configured to gather rule(s) from rule DB 314 and to apply the gathered rule(s) to output product data gathered from assets DB 224. The rule(s) may be gathered from rule DB 314 based on data included in the output product data set(s), such as output product data identifier(s). The one or more rule(s) may define confidentiality level(s) for one or more data point(s).

[0249] Public data generator 502 may be configured to provide the generated public output product data to public data provider 504. Public data provider 504 may be configured to determine search service(s) from one or more candidate search service(s), for example based on the data included in the received public output product data. Public data provider 504 may be configured to generate a request to provide the received public output product data to a search service, such as search service 116. The request may be provided to node 118. The request may include the public output product data. The request may further include a decentral participant identifier associated with the search service provider operating the search service and / or and endpoint of a network node of the decentral network associated with the search service. This way, the public output product data may be provided to search service(s) defined in the request, allowing the data owner to control to which search service of the decentral network the public output product data is to be provided. If output product data publisher service 222 does not comprise public data provider 504 (e.g. does only comprise public data generator 502), public data generator 502 may be configured to provide the generated public output product data to node 118 as previously described.

[0250] Node 118 may be a data providing node configured to provide the public output product data received from public data provider 504 to data consumer node(s) associated with one or more search service(s). Node 118 may provide the public output product data to the consumer node(s) using the endpoint(s) included in the request received from public data provider 504. Node 118 may be configured to determine such data consuming node(s) by querying decentral infrastructure node(s) of the decentral network to obtain decentral participant identifier(s) of search service providers associated with such consumer 240625

[0251] 45 node(s). Node 118 may be configured to determine endpoint(s) of such consumer node(s) based on the determined decentral participant identifier(s). Consumer node(s) of search service(s) may provide endpoint(s) allowing data providers to provide public output product data. Such endpoints may be provided to data providers upon request (e.g. upon requesting the data catalog offer of such consumer node(s) by node 118).

[0252] FIG. 7A illustrates an example of a method for generating output product data to be published in a decentral network. The output product data may be associated with an output product produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2. The output product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly, an end-product or a recycled material. The production may be a chemical production or a discrete production. The input material may include virgin material(s), recycled material(s), intermediate chemical product(s), chemical product(s), parts or components and / or component-assemblies. The chemical production may be a chemical production network as described in the context of FIG. 2. The method illustrated in FIG. 7A may be implemented by the asset generation system 218 described in the context of FIG. 2 and FIG. 3A.

[0253] Output product data set(s) associated with the output product may be provided. One or more output product data set(s) may be provided for a given output product. For instance, the output product may be associated with at least two output product data set(s), each data set including different output product data or output product data classes. Data classes may production data, declaration data, safety data, emission data, recyclate content data, biobased content data, renewable content data, biodegradability data, certificate of analysis data, certificates, life cycle data, storage instruction data, assembly instructions and operating conditions. The output product data set may include an output product data set identifier associated with the output product and output product data associated with the output product. At least a part of the output product data may be associated with confidentiality level(s) indicating the degree(s) of confidentiality of such output product data. The confidentiality level(s) may indicate whether the associated data should be published in the decentral network or whether the associated data is confidential and should not be published in the decentral network, e.g. can only be accessed via a peer-to-peer communication between the data owner of the output product data and the participants of the decentral network requesting access to such data or cannot be accessed by other participants of the decentral network. By using the confidentiality level, the data owner of the output product data may define what data point(s) included in the output product data set are to be published in the decentral network, e.g. are to be made publicly available within the decentral network without the data owner controlling access to such data point(s). This way, output product data considered public information by the data owner may be made publicly available in the decentral network while retraining full control over the output product data considered confidential by the data owner. Providing the output product data set may include gathering the output product data set from a database. The output product data may be gathered, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 5.

[0254] The provided output product data set(s) may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 7B. With reference to FIG. 7B, output product identifier(s) associated with the output product may be provided. The output product identifier(s) may include the output product name, digital output product identifier(s), a LOT number, a batch number or a combination thereof. The LOT number may be assigned to the output product on production. The output product identifier may be provided from a 240625

[0255] 46 sensor reading a physical identifier element attached to the output product or the packaged output product. The identifier element may be physically connected to the output product. The identifier element may be physically connected to any component of the output product, e.g., the packaging of the output product. The chemical product identifier may be provided via a user interface.

[0256] Output product data may be gathered from one or more database(s) based on the output product identifier(s). The database(s) may contain output product data interrelated with output product identifier(s). The database(s) may store instance(s) of output product data. The database(s) may be distributed database(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The database(s) may be associated with the production producing the output product. The output product data may be stored in the database(s) may include property data associated with the output product, the output product name, the output product producer, output product declaration data, output product safety data, emission data associated with the output product, recyclate content data associated with the output product, biobased content data associated with the output product, renewable content data associated with the output product, production data associated with the output product, certificate of analysis data associated with the output product, certificates associated with the output product, life cycle data associated with the output product, storage instruction data associated with the output product, assembly instructions associated with the output product, operating conditions associated with the output product or a combination thereof. Property data may include at least one measured chemical and / or physical property and / or at least one chemical and / or physical property determined from data collected during production and / or use of the output product. Property data may further include output product composition data indicating the composition of the output product. Production data associated with the output product may include input material data associated with input material(s) used to produce the output product. Input material data may include input material identifier(s) of input material(s) used to produce the output product. Different part(s) of the output product data may be stored in different database(s).

[0257] An output product data set identifier associated with the output product data may be provided. The output product data set identifier may uniquely identify the output product data set within the production. The output product data set identifier may uniquely identify the output product data set within the data owned by the data owner of the output product data set. The output product data set identifier may not be unique within the decentral network. The output product data set may contain letters, numbers and / or symbols. The output product data set identifier may be a UUID or a DID.

[0258] Transformed output product data may be generated by transforming gathered output product data using a rule-based engine including one or more rule(s) related to a data model associated with a product produced using the output product and linking the output product data set identifier to the transformed data. The product may be produced from the output product by using the output product as input material within at least one production step of the production process used to produce the product. The production process of the product may include one or more production steps. The production steps may be performed by one or more entities of the product ecosystem. The output product may be used as input material within at least one of such production step. By transforming the output product data according to the data model associated with the product, the output product data associated with a given semantic domain may be converted into another semantic domain. This way, it may be ensured that the output product data contain(s) data point(s) and / or the data structure required by the 240625

[0259] 47 data model, avoiding missing data point(s) and / or a wrong format of the output product data.

[0260] The rule based engine may operate on individual data point(s), multiple data point(s) and / or the gathered output product data. The rule based engine may operate on data gathered per output product identifier individually. This allows to transform gathered output product data per output product, hence allowing a more granular transformation of the output product data. The rule based engine may have access to the one or more rule(s). The rule based engine may include the one or more rule(s). The one or more rule(s) may be present within a rule template. The one or more rule(s) may be stored in a data storage. The one or more rule(s) or rule template(s) may be provided to the database by a user. The one or more rule(s) may correspond to unstructured data associated with instructions related to transformation operation(s). The rule template(s) may correspond to unstructured data associated with instructions related to transformation operation(s). The one or more rule(s) or the rule template may be included in a file provided by the user. The one or more rule(s) or the rule template(s) may be associated with output product type identifier(s) and / or output product identifier(s).

[0261] The one or more rule(s) may be associated with product(s) produced from the output product associated with the output product data to be transformed, e.g. the output product associated with the output product data to be transformed may be used as input material to produce the product. The product may be a further chemical product. The product may be a component. The product may be a component-assembly. The product may be an end product. The product may be a chemical product. The one or more rule(s) may be associated with or derived from a data model of the product. The one or more rule(s) may be associated with or derived from parent-child relationship(s) and / or class definition(s) included in the data model of the product.

[0262] Hence, the one or more rule(s) may ensure that data point(s) required according to the data model for the output product may be included in the generated output product data set. The one or more rule(s) may be defined by the mandatory output product data points present within the data model. The one or more rule(s) may be generated based on the mandatory output product data points present within the data model. This may ensure that output product data required by the data model is included in the generated output product data set. The one or more rule(s) may be associated with output product identifier(s) and / or output product type identifier(s).

[0263] The one or more rule(s) may define aggregation rule(s) for aggregating output product data gathered from multiple data sources into a given format. The given format may be a tabular representation. Aggregation may hence result in filling gathered output product data into a tabular format. The given format may be a JSON file. Aggregation may include aggregating the output product data from multiple data sources, serializing the aggregated output data by converting the aggregated output product data a string of text that follows the JSON syntax and structure and generating a JSON file from the serialized output product data.

[0264] The one or more rule(s) may define filters to filter gathered output product data. The filters may be associated with or relate to the semantic model of the product. The filters may define data point(s) to be included in the generated output product data set. For instance, a filter may define one or more output product property data point(s), output product identifier data point(s), 240625

[0265] 48 output product name data point(s), output product producer data point(s), output product declaration data point(s), output product safety data point(s), output product emission data point(s), output product recyclate content data point(s), output product biobased content data point(s), output product renewable content data point(s), output product biodegradability data point(s), output product production data point(s), output product certificate of analysis data point(s), output product certificate data point(s), output product life cycle data point(s), output product storage instruction data point(s) , output product assembly instruction data point(s) and / or output product operating condition data point(s). A filter may define data point(s) per data category. A filter may define data point(s) for at least two different data categories. A data category may signify property data, declaration data, safety data, emission data, recyclate content data, biobased content data, renewable content data, biodegradability data, production data, certificate of analysis data, certificate data, storage instruction data, assembly instruction data or operating condition data. This may ensure that output product data required by the semantic model is included in the generated output product data set.

[0266] The one or more rule(s) may define attribute construction(s) to create or add new attributes to the gathered output product data.

[0267] The one or more rule(s) may define manipulation(s) to convert output product data point(s). For instance, data point(s) present within the gathered output product data may be converted from one unit into another unit. This may ensure that the generated output product data set includes data points associated with a unit required by the semantic model of the product. The one or more rule(s) may include a trigger condition and a corresponding group of one more actions. The trigger conditions may involve a set of variables, sometimes called “working memory”, which may contain data (sometimes called “facts” or “data tuples”) representing the states of pertinent real-world items. The one or more action(s) may include attribute construction, filters and / or manipulations. A given output product identifier and / or output type identifier may be associated with rule(s) defining aggregation, rule(s) defining filters, rule(s) defining attribute construction, rule(s) defining manipulations and / or rule(s) including a trigger condition and action(s). The rule(s) may be associated with a given order.

[0268] Transforming the gathered output product data by the rule-based engine may include identifying one or more rule(s) applicable to the gathered output product data. The applicable rule(s) may be identified based on an identifier associated with each applicable rule matching or being related to an output product identifier included in the gathered output product data. The identifier associated with each applicable rule may include an output product identifier matching the output product identifier included in the gathered output product data. The identifier associated with each applicable rule may include an output product type identifier related to the output product identifier included in the gathered output product data. A mapping table may be used to map output product identifier(s) to corresponding output product type identifier(s). The output product type identifier(s) may be associated with output product type(s). The mapping table may be stored in a separate database (not shown).

[0269] Executable logic may be generated from the one or more applicable rule(s). Executable logic may include machine code, interpretable code, bytecode, and / or code that runs on a virtual machine. The logic included in the applicable rule(s) may be encoded in the executable logic. The logic included in the applicable rule(s) may be mirrored in the executable logic. This 240625

[0270] 49 may allow to transform rule(s) or rule template(s) present in unstructured data form into code that can be executed by the processor. Execution of the code may result in applying the executable rule data to the gathered output product data to transform the output product data according to the obtained rule(s). Execution of the logic may result in matching gathered output product data to condition(s) included in the executable logic, evaluating the condition(s) with matched output product data and triggering execution of rule actions based on condition evaluation results.

[0271] An output product data set may be generated by transforming the gathered output product data by executing the generated executable logic by the rule-based engine subject to rule execution criteria. Rule execution criteria may include rule execution order, exemptions and conditions. For instance, the rule designated in the condition is executed first as it triggers the execution or exemption action in the execution of the rule with which it is associated. Transforming the output product data may include filtering gathered output product data. Filtering the gathered output product data may include comparing individual data points present within the gathered output product data to data points defined by the filter(s) to determine output product data points to be included in the output product data set. Transforming the output product data may include comparing attributes of the gathered or filtered output product data to attributes defined in rule(s) to determine whether new attributes have to be created or added to the gathered or filtered output product data. In addition or alternatively, transforming may include comparing attribute(s) included in the gathered or filtered output product data or output product data including added or created attribute(s) to attribute(s) included in the modification rule(s). The modification rule(s) m ay include a trigger condition which may be associated with one or more action(s), for example unit conversion, if the trigger condition is satisfied and / or error handling if application of filters results in empty data points due to lack of data points in the gathered output product data. The trigger condition may be satisfied if the attribute(s) included in the gathered or filtered output product data or output product data including added or created attribute(s) are not matching attribute(s) defined in the modification rule(s). Operations performed by the rule based engine may be determined by the applicable rule(s). For instance, applicable rule(s) may determine whether the rule based engine operates on individual data point(s) and / or multiple data point(s) and / or the whole gathered output product data.

[0272] It may be verified whether the gathered output product data could be transformed according to one or more applicable rule(s). Gathered output product data may not be transformed or only partially transformed (e.g. transformation may result in at least one error associated with applying one or more obtained rule(s) to the gathered output product data) if the gathered output product data does not include data point(s) required according to one or more applicable rule(s). If the gathered output product data could not be transformed according to the applicable rule(s), e.g. application of such rule(s) did result in any error message data indicating that at least part of the gathered output product data could not be transformed may be generated and provided. The message data may include an indication which data point(s) of the gathered output product data could not be transformed. The message data may be provided to a display device configured to display data received from the rule based engine. The display device may comprise a graphical user interface. The display device may display the message in response to receiving message data from the rule based engine. This allows to trigger correction or updating of data point(s) identified as not matching one or more of the obtained rule(s). After correction or updating of respectively identified data point(s), gathering and transformation of updated or corrected output product data may be initiated. 240625

[0273] 50

[0274] The generated output product data set may include transformed output product data and the output product data set identifier. The generated output product data set may include output product property data point(s), output product identifier data point(s), output product name data point(s), output product producer data point(s), output product declaration data point(s), output product safety data point(s), output product emission data point(s), output product recyclate content data point(s), output product biobased content data point(s), output product biodegradability data point(s), output product renewable content data point(s), output product production data point(s), output product certificate of analysis data point(s), output product certificate data point(s), output product life cycle data point(s), output product storage instruction data point(s), output product assembly instruction data point(s) and / or output product operating condition data point(s).

[0275] An output product data set may be generated from the transformed output product data by assigning confidentiality level(s) to at least a part of the transformed output product data. The output product data set may be generated using a rule-based engine including one or more rule(s) associated with confidentiality level(s). The confidentiality level(s) may discriminate between or define output product data to be published and output product data not to be published. The confidentiality level(s) may discriminate between or define output product data to be published, output product data not to be published but to be shared under control of the output product data owner within the decentral network and output product data not to be shared within the decentral network. The confidentiality rule(s) may define whether data point(s) included in the output product data set is / are to be used for generating the public output product data based on the confidentiality level(s) associated with such data point(s). The confidentiality rule(s) may define whether group(s) of data point(s) included in the output product data set is / are to be used for generating the public output product data based on the confidentiality level(s) associated with such group(s) of data point(s). The rule(s) may further define if additional data, such as access data, the data model, a decentral participant identifier associated with the data owner, an endpoint of the data providing node associated with the data owner and / or an indication that proprietary data is available for sharing is to be included in the public output product data.

[0276] The rule based engine may operate on individual data point(s), multiple data point(s) and / or the gathered output product data as previously described. The rule based engine may have access to the one or more confidentiality rule(s). The rule based engine may include the one or more confidentiality rule(s). The one or more confidentiality rule(s) may be present within a rule template. The one or more confidentiality rule(s) may be stored in a data storage. The one or more confidentiality rule(s) or rule template(s) may be provided to the database by a user. The one or more confidentiality rule(s) may include unstructured data associated with instructions related to the definition of output product data to be published, output product data to be kept confidential but to be shared within the decentral network and output product data to be kept confidential and not to be shared within the decentral network. The instructions may include output product data type(s), output product data point(s) and / or classes of output product data and associated confidentiality level(s). The rule template(s) may include unstructured data associated with instructions related to the definition of output product data to be published, output product data to be kept confidential but to be shared within the decentral network and output product data to be kept confidential and not to be shared within the decentral network. The one or more confidentiality rule(s) or the rule template may be included in a file provided by the user. The one or more confidentiality rule(s) or the rule template(s) may be associated with output 240625

[0277] 51 product type identifier(s) and / or output product identifier(s).

[0278] Generating the output product data set by the rule-based engine may include identifying one or more confidentiality rule(s) applicable to the output product data set. The applicable confidentiality rule(s) may be identified based on an identifier associated with each applicable confidentiality rule matching or being related to an output product identifier included in the output product data set as previously described.

[0279] The output product data set may be generated by applying the confidentiality rule(s) to the output product data set. Applying the confidentiality rule(s) to the output product data set may include generating executable logic. Executable logic may be generated from the one or more applicable confidentiality rule(s) as previously described. The executable code may be executed by the rule-based engine. Execution of the code may result in applying the executable rule data to the output product data set to generate public output product data according to the applicable confidentiality rule(s).

[0280] Use of such rule(s) allows the data owner of the output product data to control the output product data point(s) published in the decentral network and accessible by participants of the decentral network and / or third parties without the data owner being able to control access to such public output product data. This way, parts of the output product data is only made publicly available in the decentral with the explicit consent of the data owner of the output product data while still allowing the output product data owner to control access to parts of the output data that are not made publicly available. This improves data discovery within the decentral network without negatively influencing the data sovereignty of the data owners with respect to confidential output product data not to be shared within the decentral network or only shared with defined decentral network participants, such as customers and / or suppliers.

[0281] Returning back to FIG. 7A, it may be determined whether the provided output product data set(s) are to be aggregated. Block 704 may be generally optional. This determination may be based on the number of output product data set(s) provided for a given output product or output product name. The number of output product data sets may be determined based on decentral identifier(s) included in the provided output product data sets. If more than one output product data set including similar or matching decentral identifier(s) is provided, the output product data set(s) including the matching decentral identifiers may be aggregated into a single output product data set. This way, output product data set(s) associated with a given output product may be aggregated prior to generating public output product data, hence avoiding generation of multiple public output product data for a given product and resulting in a more efficient generation of public output product data. If only one output product data set is provided or the provided output product data set(s) do not contain matching decentral identifier(s), no aggregation may be performed.

[0282] Public output product data may be generated from the provided output product data set(s) or the aggregated output product data set based on the confidentiality level(s) included in such data set. Public output product data may be generated by aggregating data associated with predefined confidentiality level(s). Public output product data may be generated by aggregating data associated with a confidentiality level defining such data as data to be published within the decentral network (e.g. defining such data as public data). Generating public output product data may include aggregating data 240625

[0283] 52 associated with predefined confidentiality level(s), gathering additional data associated with the output product data and / or the data owner of the output product data and generating the public output product data based on the aggregated data and the additional data. The aggregated data and the additional data may be merged or joined. The additional data may include policy data defining permission(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) of the data consumer with respect to the usage of the output product data to be published, the data model, a decentral participant identifier associated with the data owner, an endpoint of the data providing node associated with the data owner and providing the output product data and / or an indication that proprietary data is available for sharing. The additional data may be gathered based on an output product identifier. The data associated with predefined confidentiality level(s) may be aggregated using a rule-based engine including one or more rule(s) associated with the predefined confidentiality level(s). The rule-engine may operate on individual data point(s), group(s) of data point(s) or the output product data set as previously described. The one or more rule(s) may be determined as previously described. Executable logic may be generated from the one or more rule(s) as previously described. The one or more rule(s) may include instruction(s) to aggregate data based on associated confidentiality level(s). The one or more rule(s) may further include instruction(s) to add additional data to the aggregated data.

[0284] The aggregated data and the additional data may be merged or joined. The additional data may include policy data defining permission(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) of the data consumer with respect to the usage of the output product data, the data model, a decentral participant identifier associated with the data owner, an endpoint of the data providing node associated with the data owner and providing the output product data and / or an indication that proprietary data is available for sharing. The additional data may be gathered based on an output product identifier.

[0285] The public output product data may be provided for publishing in the decentral network. The public output product data may be provided via the decentral network to a search service configured to provide the received public output product data in response to a request for such data. The search service may indirectly publish such received data in the decentral network by providing received public output product data matching a search query received from participants of the decentral network and / or third parties to such participants and / or third parties, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9 to FIG. 12B. Providing the public output product data may include generating policy data defining permissions(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) of the search service with respect to the usage of the received output product data. The policy data may be provided along with the output product data to be published. The output product data to be published may be provided upon the search service 116 accepting the permissions(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) included in the policy data. This way, the data owner of the output product data may control the usage of the output product data to be published by the search service. For example, the data owner may define data processing operation(s) to be performed on the received data, such as filtering, deleting, enriching, joining, merging or the like allowed to be performed or not allowed to be performed on the data.

[0286] By assigning confidentiality level(s) to at least a part of the data included in the output product data set and by generating output product data to be published in the decentral network based on the assigned confidentiality level(s), the data owner of the output product data may control which output product data can be accessed within the decentral network without the data owner being able to control access to such published output data. This way, output product data is only made publicly available in the decentral network with explicit consent of the data owner of the output product data. Hence, data discovery 240625

[0287] 53 within the decentral network can be improved by allowing data owners to make output product data available under full control of such data owners while at the same time allowing such data owners to retain full access control to sensitive (e.g. confidential) output product data. Despite publishing parts of the output product data set in the decentral network, access to sensitive parts of such output product data set, such as emission data, composition data or the like, may still be controlled by the data owner of the output product data set via peer-to-peer communications between the data owner and the participant requesting access to such data. The method illustrated in FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B allows to improve the data discovery within the decentral network while at the same time ensuring data sovereignty of the data owner with respect to the amount of data made publicly available and with respect to controlling access to data not made publicly available. This way, a more efficient discovery and sharing of output product data within the decentral network is, allowing to improve production processes using the output product based on the shared output product data while at the same time guaranteeing the full sovereignty of the data owners of the output product data.

[0288] FIG. 8A illustrates an example of a method for generating output product data to be published in a decentral network. The output product data may be associated with an output product produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2. The output product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly, an end-product or a recycled material. The production may be a chemical production or a discrete production. The input material may include virgin material(s), recycled material(s), intermediate chemical product(s), chemical product(s), parts or components and / or component-assemblies. The chemical production may be a chemical production network as described in the context of FIG. 2. The method illustrated in FIG. 8A may be implemented by the asset generation system 218 described in the context of FIG. 2 and FIG. 3B.

[0289] Output product data set(s) associated with the output product may be provided. One or more output product data set(s) may be provided for a given output product. For instance, the output product may be associated with at least two output product data set(s), each data set including different output product data or output product data classes, such as data classes listed in the context of FIG. 7A. The output product data set(s) may include decentral identifier(s) associated with the output product and output product data associated with the output product. Providing the output product data set(s) may include gathering the output product data set from a database. The output product data may be gathered, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 5. The output product data set(s) may be gathered per produced output product. The output product data set(s) may be gathered per batch of produced output product. The output product data set(s) may be gathered per output product name, such as per output product trade name.

[0290] The provided output product data set(s) may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 8B. With reference to FIG. 8B, output product identifier(s) associated with the output product may be provided. The output product identifier(s) may include the output product name, digital output product identifier(s), a LOT number, a batch number or a combination thereof. The LOT number may be assigned to the output product on production. The chemical product identifier may be provided from a sensor reading a physical identifier element attached to the output product or the packaged output product. The identifier element may be physically connected to the output product. The identifier element may be physically connected to any component of the output product, e.g., the packaging of the output product. The chemical product identifier may be provided 240625

[0291] 54 via a user interface.

[0292] Output product data may be gathered from one or more database(s) based on the output product identifier(s). The database(s) may contain output product data interrelated with output product identifier(s). The database(s) may store instance(s) of output product data. The database(s) may be distributed database(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The database(s) may be associated with the production producing the output product. The output product data may be stored in the database(s) may include property data associated with the output product, the output product name, the output product producer, output product declaration data, output product safety data, emission data associated with the output product, recyclate content data associated with the output product, biobased content data associated with the output product, renewable content data associated with the output product, production data associated with the output product, certificate of analysis data associated with the output product, certificates associated with the output product, life cycle data associated with the output product, storage instruction data associated with the output product, assembly instructions associated with the output product, operating conditions associated with the output product or a combination thereof. Property data may include at least one measured chemical and / or physical property and / or at least one chemical and / or physical property determined from data collected during production and / or use of the output product. Property data may further include output product composition data indicating the composition of the output product. Production data associated with the output product may include input material data associated with input material(s) used to produce the output product. Input material data may include input material identifier(s) of input material(s) used to produce the output product. Different part(s) of the output product data may be stored in different database(s).

[0293] At least one decentral identifier associated with the gathered data and optionally the data owner of the gathered data may be provided. The decentral identifier(s) may be provided in response to a request generated, for example, by asset generator 322 (see FIG. 3B). The request may contain a data owner identifier and / or an output product identifier. The data owner may be the data owner of the gathered data and / or the data contained in the distributed data sources. The data owner may be the output product producer. The decentral identifier(s) may be one or more DID(s) and / or UUID(s). Block 816 may also be performed after block 818.

[0294] On or more data model(s) may be provided. The data model(s) may be associated with or relate to an output product class associated with the output product. Each aspect data model may include the structure of at least a portion of the output product data set, and / or properties of the output product data set. The data model(s) may be provided from a database storing one or more data model(s). The data model(s) stored in the database may be linked to one or more identifier(s), such as output product type(s) and / or data model identifier(s). The data model(s) may be provided by gathering the data model(s) from such database. The data model(s) may be gathered based on at least a part of the output product data. For instance, the output product data may include at least one output product class indicating the chemical class(es) and / or type(s) of the output product. Such output product class(es) may be matched to output product classes and / or data model identifier(s) linked to data model(s) stored in the database. The data model(s) may be gathered based on predefined data model identifier(s). For instance, data model(s) may be gathered from the database by matching predefined data model identifier(s) with data model identifier(s) contained in the database. At least one provided data model may relate to or define 240625

[0295] 55 environmental property data associated with the output product. Environmental property data may include emission data, recycled content data, biobased content data, renewable content data, certificate data certifying reduced environmental impact, biodegradable data or a combination thereof.

[0296] An output product data set may be generated by applying the provided data model(s) to the gathered output product data and the provided decentral identifier. An output product data set may be generated per provided data model. Each generated output product data set may share at least one decentral identifier with the other generated output product data sets. Each generated output product data set may include a different decentral identifier than the other generated output product data sets. This way, the output product data set or asset can be uniquely identified by the combination of decentral identifiers within the decentral network. Use of different data models allows to generate different output product data sets containing different data associated with the output product. The different output product data sets allow the data owner to more granular structure the output product data, thus allowing to control access and define access to said data on a more granular level. For instance, an output product data set containing access restricted data, such as environmental property data, the composition of the chemical product, etc., may be associated with access data and group access data strictly regulating access to said data set while an output product data set containing data required from a regulatory point of view may not be associated with access data and / or group access data or may be associated with access data and / or group access data granting access to said data less strictly.

[0297] Returning back to FIG. 8A, it may be determined whether the provided output product data set(s) are to be aggregated. Block 806 may be generally optional. This determination may be based on the number of output product data set(s) resulting from block 804 for a given output product. The number of output product data sets may be determined based on decentral identifier(s) included in the provided output product data sets. If more than one output product data set including similar or matching decentral identifier(s) are provided, the output product data set(s) including the matching decentral identifiers may be aggregated into a single output product data set. This way, output product data set(s) associated with a given output product may be aggregated prior to generating public output product data, hence avoiding generation of multiple public output product data for a given product and resulting in a more efficient generation of public output product data. If only one output product data set is provided or the provided output product data set(s) do not contain matching decentral identifier(s), no aggregation may be performed.

[0298] Confidentiality level(s) indicating the degree of confidentiality of the output product data may be assigned to at least a part of the output product data included in the output product data set(s) using a rule-based engine including one or more rule(s) associated with confidentiality level(s). The confidentiality level(s) may discriminate between or define output product data to be published and output product data not to be published. The confidentiality level(s) may discriminate between or define output product data to be published, output product data not to be published but to be shared under control of the output product data owner within the decentral network and output product data not to be shared within the decentral network. The confidentiality rule(s) may define whether data point(s) included in the output product data set is / are to be used for generating the public output product data based on the confidentiality level(s) associated with such data point(s). The confidentiality rule(s) may define whether group(s) of data point(s) included in the output product data set is / are to be used 240625

[0299] 56 for generating the public output product data based on the confidentiality level(s) associated with such group(s) of data point(s).

[0300] The rule based engine may operate on individual data point(s), multiple data point(s) and / or the gathered output product data as previously described. The rule based engine may have access to the one or more confidentiality rule(s). The rule based engine may include the one or more confidentiality rule(s). The one or more confidentiality rule(s) may be present within a rule template. The one or more confidentiality rule(s) may be stored in a data storage. The one or more confidentiality rule(s) or rule template(s) may be provided to the database by a user. The one or more confidentiality rule(s) may include unstructured data associated with instructions related to the definition of output product data to be published, output product data to be kept confidential but to be shared within the decentral network and output product data to be kept confidential and not to be shared within the decentral network. The instructions may include output product data type(s), output product data point(s) and / or classes of output product data and associated confidentiality level(s). The rule template(s) may include unstructured data associated with instructions related to the definition of output product data to be published, output product data to be kept confidential but to be shared within the decentral network and output product data to be kept confidential and not to be shared within the decentral network. The one or more confidentiality rule(s) or the rule template may be included in a file provided by the user. The one or more confidentiality rule(s) or the rule template(s) may be associated with output product type identifier(s) and / or output product identifier(s).

[0301] Generating public output product data by the rule-based engine may include identifying one or more confidentiality rule(s) applicable to the output product data set. The applicable confidentiality rule(s) may be identified based on an identifier associated with each applicable confidentiality rule matching or being related to an output product identifier included in the output product data set as previously described.

[0302] The public output product data may be generated by applying the confidentiality rule(s) to the output product data set(s). The public output product data may be generated by applying the rule(s) to output product data set(s) including the same output product identifier. This way, public output product data can be generated for all output product data set(s) associated with a given output product. Applying the confidentiality rule(s) to the output product data set may include generating executable logic. Executable logic may be generated from the one or more applicable confidentiality rule(s) as previously described. The executable code may be executed by the rule-based engine. Execution of the code may result in applying the executable rule data to the output product data set to generate public output product data according to the applicable confidentiality rule(s).

[0303] Use of such rule(s) allows the data owner of the output product data to control the output product data point(s) published in the decentral network and accessible by participants of the decentral network and / or third parties without the data owner being able to control access to such public output product data. This way, parts of the output product data is only made publicly available in the decentral with the explicit consent of the data owner of the output product data while still allowing the output product data owner to control access to parts of the output data that are not made publicly available. This improves data discovery within the decentral network without negatively influencing the data sovereignty of the data owners with respect to confidential output product data not to be shared within the decentral network or only shared with defined 240625

[0304] 57 decentral network participants, such as customers and / or suppliers.

[0305] Public output product data may be generated from the provided output product data set(s) or the aggregated output product data set based on the confidentiality level(s) included in such data set. Public output product data may be generated by aggregating data associated with predefined confidentiality level(s). Public output product data may be generated by aggregating data associated with a confidentiality level defining such data as data to be published within the decentral network (e.g. defining such data as public data). Generating public output product data may include aggregating data associated with predefined confidentiality level(s), gathering additional data associated with the output product data and / or the data owner of the output product data and generating the public output product data based on the aggregated data and the additional data. The aggregated data and the additional data may be merged or joined. The additional data may include policy data defining permission(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) of the data consumer with respect to the usage of the output product data, the data model, a decentral participant identifier associated with the data owner, an endpoint of the data providing node associated with the data owner and providing the output product data and / or an indication that proprietary data is available for sharing. The additional data may be gathered based on an output product identifier. The data associated with predefined confidentiality level(s) may be aggregated using a rule-based engine including one or more rule(s) associated with the predefined confidentiality level(s). The rule-engine may operate on individual data point(s), group(s) of data point(s) or the output product data set as previously described. The one or more rule(s) may be determined as previously described. Executable logic may be generated from the one or more rule(s) as previously described. The one or more rule(s) may include instruction(s) to aggregate data based on associated confidentiality level(s). The one or more rule(s) may further include instruction(s) to add additional data to the aggregated data.

[0306] The public output product data may be provided for publishing in the decentral network. The public output product data may be provided via the decentral network to a search service configured to publish the received public output product data in a decentral network. The search service may indirectly publish such received data in the decentral network by providing received public output product data matching a search query received from participants of the decentral network and / or third parties to such participants and / or third parties, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9 to FIG. 12B. Providing the public output product data may include generating policy data defining permissions(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) of the search service with respect to the usage of the received output product data. The policy data may be provided along with the output product data to be published. The output product data to be published may be provided upon the search service 116 accepting the permissions(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) included in the policy data. This way, the data owner of the output product data may control the usage of the output product data to be published by the search service. For example, the data owner may define data processing operation(s) to be performed on the received data, such as filtering, deleting, enriching, joining, merging or the like allowed to be performed or not allowed to be performed on the data.

[0307] By assigning confidentiality level(s) to at least a part of the data included in the output product data set and by generating output product data to be published in the decentral network based on the assigned confidentiality level(s), the data owner of the output product data may control which output product data can be accessed within the decentral network without the data owner being able to control access to such published output data. This way, output product data is only made publicly 240625

[0308] 58 available in the decentral network with explicit consent of the data owner of the output product data. Hence, data discovery within the decentral network can be improved by allowing data owners to make output product data available under full control of such data owners while at the same time allowing such data owners to retain full access control to sensitive (e.g. confidential) output product data. Despite publishing parts of the output product data set in the decentral network, access to sensitive parts of such output product data set, such as emission data, composition data or the like, may still be controlled by the data owner of the output product data set via peer-to-peer communications between the data owner and the participant requesting access to such data. The method illustrated in FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B allows to improve the data discovery within the decentral network while at the same time ensuring data sovereignty of the data owner with respect to the amount of data made publicly available and with respect to controlling access to data not made publicly available. This way, a more efficient discovery and sharing of output product data within the decentral network is, allowing to improve production processes using the output product based on the shared output product data while at the same time guaranteeing the full sovereignty of the data owners of the output product data.

[0309] FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a decentral search service configured to receive query data associated with output products from data consumers and to provide public output product data matching such query data to the data customers. The search service may be part of a decentral network, such as decentral network 136. The search service may be operated by a participant of the decentral network, such as a search service provider. The participant of the decentral network may be part of a production chain, use chain and / or recycling chain of the product ecosystem. The participant of the decentral network may not be part of a production chain, use chain and / or recycling chain of the product ecosystem, e.g. may not be involved in the production, use and / or recycling of the product. The output product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly, an end-product or a recycled material. The production may be a chemical production or a discrete production. The output product may be produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2. The input material may include virgin material(s), recycled material(s), intermediate chemical product(s), chemical product(s), parts or components and / or component-assemblies. The production may be a chemical production. The chemical production may be a chemical production network as described in the context of FIG. 2. The production may be a discrete production.

[0310] Search service 116 may be associated with decentral network nodes, such as data consumer node 130 and data provider node 130. Data consumer node 130 and data provider node 130 may be part of a decentral network, such as decentral network 136 described in the context of FIG. 1. Data consumer node 130 may be configured to receive public output product data from data provider nodes, such as node 118, associated with public output product data providers. Public output product data providers may include output product data owners, such as output product producers, and / or third parties generating and providing public output product data on behalf of the output product data owner or the output product producer. The public output product data may be generated and provided to the search service as described in the context of FIG. 2 to FIG. 8B. Data consumer node 130 may further be configured to receive query data associated with output product(s) from data providing nodes, such as node 128 associated with recycler 114 (see for example FIG. 12A, ). Data consumer node 130 may be configured to provide endpoint(s) for providing public output product data and / or query data. Such endpoints may be provided as part of the catalog (e.g. data offer) provided by data consumer node 130 upon request of 240625

[0311] 59 data provider node(s), such as nodes 118, 128. The endpoint(s) may be used by data providers to provide public output product data and / or query data to search service 116. Data provider node 130 may be configured to provide ranked output product data. The ranked output product data may be generated in response to query data received via the decentral network 136 as described later on. The ranked output product data may be provided to a data consumer node associated with or related to the data provider node providing the query data.

[0312] Search service 116 may be implemented using Elasticsearch, an open-source search engine built on top of Apache Lucene.

[0313] Search service 116 may include content processor 908. Content processor 908 may be coupled via a communication interface to data consumer node 130. Content processor 908 may be configured to generate an index entry per received public output product data package and to generate a search index 910 from the index entry or to add the index entry to an existing search index 910.

[0314] With reference to FIG. 10, content processor 908 may be configured to receive public output product data via the decentral network, such as decentral network 136. Content processor 908 may be configured to receive the public output product data from consumer node 130 of the decentral network 136. The received public output product data may include an identifier, such as a public output product data set identifier or decentral identifier and public output product data associated with the output product, for example as described in the context of FIG. 7A to FIG. 8B.

[0315] Content processor 908 may be configured to process the received public output product data, this step being generally optional. Processing may include parsing the received public output product data, normalizing the received public output product data, validating of at least a part of the received public output product data and / or enriching the received public output product data with further data. Validation may include parsing the received public output product data and comparing the parsed public output product data with predefined data or with a predefined data model. The predefined data or data model may include or define one or more mandatory data point(s) to be included in the received public output product data. This way, it can be ensured that the public output product data can be identified by search engine 906 based on query data including commonly known search terms, such as CAS number, EC number, InChi code, InChi Key, Beilstein registry number, IUPAC name, trivial name, trade name, ChEBI identifier and / or ChEMBL identifier.

[0316] Enriching the received public output product data may include adding data point(s) to the received public output product data. Adding data point(s) to the received public output product data may include gathering data from one or more databases, such as databases 916, 918 based on the received public output product data and adding at least a part of the gathered data to the received public output product data. Databases 916, 918 may be public databases storing data on chemical compounds, polymeric compounds and / or bioactive materials. Databases 916, 918 may include the PubChem database, the CAMPUS plastic database, the ECHA chemicals database, the ChEBI database, the Beilstein database, and / or the ChEMBL database. This way received public output product data may be enriched with public data available for the output product associated with the received output product data to improve the keywords included in the index entry for such output product. The public data may include chemical name synonym(s), trade name synonym(s), CAS number, EC 240625

[0317] 60 number, InChi code, InChlKey, IUPAC name, ChEBI identifier and / or ChEMBL identifier. This allows to readily determine public output product data based on commonly used query terms for output products, such as chemical names, molecular formula, CAS number, EC number, InChi code, InChlKey, IUPAC name, ChEBI identifier, ChEMBL identifier, trivial name, and / or trade name. Data enrichment or addition of data to the received public output product data may be performed in response to data validation. For instance, data point(s) determined to be missing in the received public output product data during data validation may be added by gathering such missing data from databases 916, 918 based on data included in the received public output product data, such as the trade name of the output product, the chemical name of the output product, the CAS number of the chemical product or a combination thereof.

[0318] Content processor 908 may be configured to create at least one index entry for the public output product data and to generate a search index from the at least one index entry. Content processor 908 may be configured to generate the index entry / ies by associating at least a part of the received public output product data or the processed public output product data with the respective identifier, e.g. the identifier included in the public output product data or processed output product data. Search index 910 may include trade name synonyms for output products associated with the public output product data, chemical name synonyms for output products associated with the public output product data, company / ies producing the output products associated with the public output product data, InChi code and InChi key of the output products associated with the public output product data, CAS number of the output products associated with the public output product data, EC number of the output products associated with the public output product data, ChEBI identifier of the output products associated with the public output product data, ChEMBL identifier of the output products associated with the public output product data, Beilstein registry number of the output products associated with the public output product data, chemical and / or physical property / ies of the output products associated with the public output product data, policy data associated with policy / ies for accessing and using the public output product data, data model(s) used to generate the public output product data, availability of proprietary data for the output products or a combination thereof.

[0319] Content processor 908 may be configured to generate the search index from the created index entries by combining the created index entries. With reference to FIG. 11, the search index 910 may be an inverted search index. The inverted search index 910 may associate data point(s) included in the public output product data, such as public output product data illustrated in FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B, with the respective identifier included in such output product data. It hence stores a mapping between data point(s) included in the public output product data and the respective public output product data. This way, public output product data may be easily and quickly determined based on data point(s) included in received query data. Each index entry 1106 may be associated with an attribute of the output product. Each index entry 1106 may map data point(s) included in the public output product data to the respective output product via the identifier. In another example, the search index may be an inverted vector file index, a database index, a resource description framework (RDF) index and / or a graph based index.

[0320] Content processor 908 may be configured to provide the generated search index 910 for access by search engine 906.

[0321] Providing the generated search index 910 may include providing the generated search index 910 for storage in a database.

[0322] Providing the generated search index 910 may include persisting the generated search index 910 in a database. The 240625

[0323] 61 database may be coupled to content processor 908 via a communication interface.

[0324] Content processor 908 may further be configured to update the search index 910 with further public output product data received via the decentral network, this step being generally optional. Updating the search index may include creating new index entry / ies based on the received further public output product data, for example as previously described, and adding the new index entry / ies to the search index 910. Updating may include adding data point(s) to index entry / ies existing in the search index 910.

[0325] Returning to FIG. 9, a single database storing search index 910 is shown. However, it is likewise possible to partition the search index 910 into smaller units. This way, data distribution across multiple servers may be facilitated, allowing scalability and higher speed in identifying and providing output product data matching received query data.

[0326] Content processor 908 may be configured to provide the received public output product data and / or the processed public output product data to at least one database 914 for storage. The database(s) may be relational or non-relational database(s). Content processor 908 may be configured to determine, for example based on the identifier(s), whether the received public output product data and / or the processed public output product data is an update of public product output data already stored in database(s) 914. If public output product data is already stored in database(s) 914, content processor 908 may be configured to update the stored public output product data. Content processor 908 may be configured not to provide enriched public output product data used to generate the index entry / ies to database(s) 914. This way, it may be ensured that only output product data designated as public by the output product data owner is provided to entities querying search service 116 for output product data. Hence, the enriched output product data may only be used for generating index entry / ies to improve identification of public output product data matching the received query data while ensuring that only output product data explicitly approved by the data owner to be published is publicly available within the decentral network. Content processor 908 may be configured to provide enriched public output product data used to generate the index entry / ies to database(s) 914. This may include providing the enriched public output product data to the data provider associated with the public output product data related to the enriched public output product data for approval and providing the enriched public output data to database(s) 914 in case the data owner approved the enriched public output data. This way enriched public output data may be provided to entities querying the search service 116 without the data owner losing control over the output product data that is publicly available.

[0327] Search service 116 may further include search engine 906. Search engine 906 may be configured to receive query data associated with output product(s) via the decentral network 136. The query data may be received from consumer node 130. The query data may be received via a communication interface (not shown, see FIG. 12B).The query data may include output product data associated with output product(s) or data related to such output product(s). The query data may further include a decentral participant identifier related to the provider node of the decentral network 136 providing the query data. The query data may further include an endpoint for providing ranked public output product data. The query data may include unstructured data, such as natural language text. The query data may include structured data, such as key-value pairs. The query data may be provided to consumer node 130 from one or more provider node(s), such as node 128, of the decentral 62 network 136, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12A. The provider node(s) may be associated with participants of the decentral network 136. The query data may be received via an API, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12B. This way, the search service 116 may also be accessible by entities not being a participant of the decentral network, e.g. not operating a data consuming and / or data providing node.

[0328] Search engine 906 may be configured to process the received query data. Processing may include parsing the received query data to identify keywords, operators, such as AND, OR, NOT, and restrictions, such as exact match etc.. Processing may include correcting typographical errors included in the received query data. Processing may include reducing words included in the query data to their root form.

[0329] Search engine 906 may be configured to query the search index 910 based on the query data and / or the processed query data. Search engine 906 may be configured to gather index entry / ies matching the query data and / or the processed query data from search index 910. Based on the index entry / ies, search engine 906 may be configured to gather public output product data from database(s) 914. The gathered public output product data may include one or more public output product data set(s). Search engine 906 may be configured to gather the public output product data based on identifier(s), such as output product data set identifier(s) and / or decentral identifier(s), included in the index entry / ies and the query data and / or the processed query data. Search engine 906 may be configured to provide the gathered public output product data and the query data and / or processed query data as candidate public output product data to ranking module 912.

[0330] Ranking module 912 may be configured to rank the plurality of candidate public output product data received from search engine 906 based on the received query data and / or the processed query data. Ranking may include matching the plurality of candidate public output product data to the received query data and / or processed query data. Ranking module 912 may be configured to generate a final set of candidate public output product data (denoted as ranked public output product data hereinafter). The ranked public output product data may include the public output product data received from search engine 906 interrelated with ranking data indicating a ranking of the public output product data. The ranking may indicate the degree of correlation of the respective public output product data set with the query data. Ranking module 912 may be configured to determine and assign a score to each public output product data set received from search engine 906. The score may be determined based on a degree of matching between the data point(s) included in the public output product data set(s) and the data point(s) included in the query data and / or the processed query data. The score may further be determined based on the age of the public output product data. For instance, younger public output product data may be ranked higher than older public output product data. Ranking module 912 may be configured to combine the scores. The scores may be combined using a weighted formula. Based on the weighted scores, ranking module 912 may generate the ranked public output product data.

[0331] Ranking module 912 may further be configured to provide the ranked output product data and at least part of the query data, such as the decentral participant identifier related to the provider node the query data was received from and / or an endpoint for providing the ranked public output product data, to data provider node 130 associated with search service 116. Data provider node 130 may be configured to provide the ranked public output product data to a consumer node of the decentral 63 network 136 associated with the entity providing the query data to search service 116 based on the query data (see for example FIG. 12A). For instance, data providing node 130 may be configured to determine the endpoint of a data consumer node associated with the entity providing the query data based on the decentral participant identifier included in the query data.

[0332] Ranking module 912 may further be configured to provide the ranked public output product data via an API to the entity providing the query data (see also FIG. 12B).

[0333] FIG. 12A illustrates an example architecture of a search service provider environment connected via a decentral network to a search service user environment for providing public output product data matching query data received by the search service user environment. The decentral network may be decentral network 136 described in the context of FIG. 1 . The public output product data may be associated with output product(s). The public output product data may be associated with physical entity / ies of output product(s). The public output product data may be associated output product(s) producible by a production. The output product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly, an end-product or a recycled material. The production may be a chemical production or a discrete production. The output product may be produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2. The input material may include virgin material(s), recycled material(s), intermediate chemical product(s), chemical product(s), parts or components and / or component-assemblies. The production may be a chemical production. The chemical production may be a chemical production network as described in the context of FIG. 2. The production may be a discrete production.

[0334] The search service user environment 1212 may be associated with a participant of the decentral network 136, such as end product producer 108. The participant of the decentral network may be associated with one or more decentral network node(s), such as data provider nodes configured to provide data to the decentral network 136 and data consumer nodes configured to consume data from the decentral network 136. The participant of the decentral network may operate the decentral network nodes. The participant of the decentral network may be associated with a decentral participant identifier uniquely identifying the participant within the decentral network. The decentral network participant may be part of the production chain, the use chain and / or the recycling chain of the product ecosystem including the output product. The participant of the decentral network may be associated with backend 1214. backend 1214 may be a server configured to provide query data to data providing node 122, to receive ranked public output product data from consumer node 130 and to provide the received ranked public output product data to I / O device 1204. backend 1214 may be in a server-client relationship with I / O device 1204. backend 1214 and I / O device 1204 may be operated by or associated with the participant of the decentral network, such as end product producer 108.

[0335] I / O device 1204 may be configured to display a graphical user interface 1206. The graphical user interface may allow a user, such as end product producer 108, to enter or select one or more search terms associated with output products for which output product data is required by end product producer 108. In addition or alternatively, user interface 1206 may allow the user to enter a search query in natural language. I / O device 1204 may be configured to provide the user input to backend 240625

[0336] 64

[0337] 1214.

[0338] Backend 1214 may be configured to generate query data associated with output product(s) based on the data received from I / O device 1204. The query data may include search term(s) and / or the search query entered by the user. The query data may further include the decentral participant identifier associated with the decentral participant identifier. The query data may further include the endpoint of data consumer node 122 to which ranked public output product data is to be provided by search service 116 via the decentral network 136. The query data may further include the endpoint of data consumer node 130 to which the query data is to be provided via the decentral network. With reference to FIG. 17, backend 1214 may be configured to provide the generated query data to data provider node 122.

[0339] Provider node 122 may be configured to determine an endpoint to provide the query data of consumer node 130 associated with the search service. Provider node 122 may determine the endpoint based on data included in the query data, such as the decentral participant identifier and / or the endpoint of data consumer node 130. Provider node 122 may be configured to query decentral infrastructure node(s) (not shown in FIG. 12A) to determine the decentral participant identifier of the search service provider operating search service 116. Provider node 122 may be configured to query decentral infrastructure node(s) to determine the consumer node 130 based on the determined decentral participant identifier of the search service provider (see for example FIG. 14). With continued reference to FIG. 17, provider node 122 may provide the query data via the decentral network 136 to consumer node 130 associated with search service 116. Prior to data exchange, provider node 122 and consumer node 130 may be authenticating, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. This way, search service providers may ensure that only authorized decentral network nodes can access the search service and gather public output product data.

[0340] Consumer node 130 may be part of search service provider environment 1210. Search service provider environment 1210 may be operated by a search service provider. Search service provider environment 1210 may include search service 116, for example search service 116 described in the context of FIG. 9. Search service 116 may be configured to store public output product data received from public output product data providers via the decentral network 136 in one or more database(s) 914, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9. The public output product data may be provided under control of the public output product data owners to search service 116. Hence, search service 116 may only store and make publicly available output product data provided to search service 116 under explicit consent of the data owners of the output product data. Search service 116 may further be configured to generate a search index 910 based on the received public output product data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9 to FIG. 11. Consumer node 130 may be configured to provide the received query data to search engine 906 of search service 116, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9. With continued reference to FIG. 17, search engine 906 may process the received query data and determine public output product data based on the processed query data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9. The determined public output product data may be provided from search engine 906 to ranking module 912. Ranking module 912 may be configured to generate ranked public output product data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9. Ranking module 912 may provide the ranked public output product data and part of the received query data to provider node 130. 240625

[0341] 65

[0342] Provider node 130 may be part of search service provider environment 1210. With continued reference to FIG. 17, provider node 130 may be configured to provide ranked public output product data to search service user environment 1212. Provider node 130 may be configured to determine consumer node 122 of search service user environment 1212 based on the query data received from ranking module 912. For instance, provider node 130 may determine consumer node 128 based on the decentral participant identifier associated with end product producer 108 using decentral infrastructure node(s). Provider node 130 may use endpoint data included in the query data to provide the ranked public output product data to consumer node 122 associated with end product producer 108.

[0343] With continued reference to FIG. 17, consumer node 122 may be configured to provide received ranked public output product data to backend 1214. backend 1214 may be configured to provide such received ranked public output product data to I / O device 1204. I / O device 1204 may be configured to display the ranked public output product data in user interface 1206. With reference to FIG. 13, the user interface 1320 may include general public output product data 1314 matching the query data. The user interface 1320 may further include a ranking 1310 of the search results. The ranking may indicate the degree of matching of the respective search result with the query data. The user interface 1320 may further include the manufacturer 1312 of the respective output product. The user interface 1320 may include buttons 1316 and 1322 allowing to view public chemical and / or physical properties for each search result as well as the policy data associated with each respective data offer indicated by a search result. The user interface 1320 may further indicate whether proprietary output product data is available. The user interface 1320 may further include available data indicating the decentral network(s) where the output product data can be gathered from the respective data owners and an option to connect to such data offer 1304. The user interface 1320 may further include filtering options 1308 to allow filtering of the search results. The user may trigger gathering of displayed public output product data and / or may initiate gathering of proprietary output product data associated with displayed public output product data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14.

[0344] Via the decentral network, public output product data can be shared securely and efficiently, allowing participants of the decentral network to search for publicly available output product data without having to query each individual decentral network node. This way, output product data made publicly available under control and explicit consent of the data owner of the output product data can be reliably and efficiently accessed by decentral network participants, allowing for more transparency on the publicly available output product data as well as improving further processing using such output products based on publicly available output product data. For instance, publicly available output product data may be used to improve the production of further products produced at least in part by using such output products as input materials. Moreover, such publicly available output product data may be used by consumers of the output products to determine available output product(s) matching target data, such as target chemical and / or physical properties. This improved transparency allows more efficient production of further products using such output products, since appropriate output products can be efficiently and reliably determined based on the publicly available output product data.

[0345] FIG. 12B illustrates an example architecture of a search service provider environment connected via an API a search service user environment for providing public output product data matching query data received by the search service user environment. The public output product data may be associated with output product(s). The public output product data may 240625

[0346] 66 be associated with physical entity / ies of output product(s). The public output product data may be associated output product(s) producible by a production. The output product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly, an end-product or a recycled material. The production may be a chemical production or a discrete production. The output product may be produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2. The input material may include virgin material(s), recycled material(s), intermediate chemical product(s), chemical product(s), parts or components and / or component-assemblies. The production may be a chemical production. The chemical production may be a chemical production network as described in the context of FIG. 2. The production may be a discrete production.

[0347] The search service user environment 1212 may be associated with a participant a product ecosystem, such as end product producer 108. The participant may be part of the production chain, the use chain and / or the recycling chain of the product ecosystem including the output product. The participant may be associated with backend 1214. backend 1214 may be a server configured to provide query data to search service 116 via a communication interface, such as an API, to receive ranked public output product data from search service 116 via the communication interface and to provide the received ranked public output product data to I / O device 1204. backend 1214 may be in a server-client relationship with I / O device 1204. backend 1214 and I / O device 1204 may be operated by or associated with the participant of the product ecosystem, such as chemical product producer 104. In an alternative embodiment, I / O device 1204 may be directly connected via a communication interface to search service 116, e.g. I / O device 1204 may act as client and search service 116 may act as server (not shown in FIG. 12B).

[0348] I / O device 1204 may be configured to display a graphical user interface 1206. The graphical user interface may allow a user, such as end product producer 108, to enter or select one or more search terms associated with output products for which output product data is required by end product producer 108. In addition or alternatively, user interface 1206 may allow the user to enter a search query in natural language. I / O device 1204 may be configured to provide the user input to backend 1214. backend 1214 may be configured to generate query data associated with output product(s) based on the data received from I / O device 1204, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12A. The query data may include search term(s) and / or the search query entered by the user. The query data may further include address data of backend 1214. Address data may include the IP address of backend 1214. backend 1214 may be configured to initiate a connection to search service 116. Initiating a connection may include exchange of token(s) from backend 1214 to search service 116. backend 1214 may be configured to provide the generated query data via a communication interface, such as an API, to search service provider environment 1210. The token may be associated with the IP address of backend 1214.

[0349] Search service provider environment 1210 may be operated by a search service provider. Search service provider environment 1210 may include search service 116, for example search service 116 described in the context of FIG. 9. Search service 116 may be configured to store public output product data received from public output product data providers via the decentral network 136 in one or more database(s) 914, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9 and FIG. 240625

[0350] 67

[0351] 12A. Search service 116 may further be configured to generate a search index 910 based on the received public output product data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9 to FIG. 11. Search engine 906 of search service 116 may receive the query data via the communication interface. Search engine 906 may process the received query data and determine public output product data based on the processed query data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9. The determined public output product data may be provided from search engine 906 to ranking module 912. Ranking module 912 may be configured to generate ranked public output product data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9. Ranking module 912 may provide the ranked public output product data via the communication interface to backend 1214. Ranking module 912 may be configured to determine address data of backend 1214 based on the query data provided by search engine 906. Ranking module 912 may be configured to determine the IP address of backend 1214 based on token(s) associated with the query data. Ranking module 912 may match the token(s) associated with the query data with token(s) associated with open connection(s) to determine the IP address of backend 1214. backend 1214 may be configured to provide such received ranked public output product data to I / O device 1204. I / O device 1204 may be configured to display the ranked public output product data in user interface 1206, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12A and FIG. 13. The user may trigger gathering of displayed public output product data and / or may initiate gathering of proprietary output product data associated with displayed public output product data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 15.

[0352] Output product data made publicly available under control and explicit consent of the data owner of the output product data can be reliably and efficiently accessed by participants of the product ecosystem or third parties, allowing for more transparency on the publicly available output product data as well as improving further processing using such output products based on publicly available output product data. For instance, publicly available output product data may be used to improve the production of further products produced at least in part by using such output products as input materials. Moreover, such publicly available output product data may be used by consumers of the output products to determine available output product(s) matching target data, such as target chemical and / or physical properties. This improved transparency allows more efficient production of further products using such output products, since appropriate output products can be efficiently and reliably determined based on the publicly available output product data.

[0353] FIG. 14 illustrates an example of a system and associated methods for transferring output product data associated with an output product within a decentral network from a data provider to data consumer(s) consuming the output product data. The output product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly, an endproduct or a recycled material. The output product may be produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2. The input material may include virgin material(s), recycled material(s), intermediate chemical product(s), chemical product(s), parts or components and / or component-assemblies. The production may be a chemical production. The chemical production may be a chemical production network as described in the context of FIG. 2. The production may be a discrete production. The decentral network may be a decentral network as described in the context of FIG. 1. The data provider may be the data owner of the output product data, such as the output product producer. The data consumer may be any participant of the decentral network (see also FIG. 1). The system 240625

[0354] 68 illustrated in FIG. 14 may be used to gather output product data associated with the output product based on ranked public output product data received from a search service and matching query data associated with the output product, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B.

[0355] In the example the chemical product producer 104 is shown as one possible participant of the product ecosystem. Any other participant may be equally suitable as output product data provider, and the example should not be considered limiting.

[0356] I / O device 1204 may display ranked public output product data associated with an output product on user interface 1206, for example as illustrated in FIG. 13. The ranked public output product data may have been received by backend 1214 in response to query data associated with output product(s) and having been provided via decentral network 136 to search service 116, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12A. With reference to FIG. 13, the user interface may allow to connect to the data offer(s) (e.g. output product data) associated with ranked public output product data if the data provider published an endpoint associated with such data offer. The data offer(s) may be associated with output product data. The output product data may be associated with one or more output product(s) (e.g. physical entity / ies) produced from one or more input material(s) by the production. A participant of a decentral network, such as end product producer 108, may connect to the respective data offer associated with given public output product data displayed in user interface 1206 by clicking on a respective button in user interface 1206 (see 1304 in FIG. 13).

[0357] The public output product data may be associated with a digital twin of output product or a part thereof the public output product data is associated with. The digital twin of output product(s) may be stored in database(s) 1412 associated with or controlled by the data owner of the digital twin. The data owner may be the output product producer of the output product(s). The data owner may control access to the database 1412. The digital twin(s) may be stored in database 1412 for access by data consumer(s), such as output product user(s) or output product consumer(s) and / or output product data consumer(s). The digital twin(s) stored in database 1412 may include a decentral identifier and output product data. The output product data may include output product identifier(s), property data associated with the output product, output product name data, output product producer data, output product declaration data, output product safety data, environmental property data associated with the output product, production data associated with the output product, certificate of analysis data associated with the output product, certificate data associated with the output product, life cycle data associated with the output product, storage instruction data associated with the output product, assembly instructions associated with the output product, operating conditions associated with the output product or a combination thereof. The output product data may include one or more output product data set(s). The output product data set(s) may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 8B by applying one or more data model(s) to output product data gathered prior to, during and / or after production of the respective output product. The output product data set(s) may be linked to the decentral identifier of the digital twin. Each output product data set may include a decentral identifier associated with the respective data set. This way, identification of a respective data set or asset may be achieved by the combination of decentral identifiers (e.g. decentral identifier of the digital twin and decentral identifier of the output product data set). 240625

[0358] 69

[0359] The digital twin or part(s) thereof stored in database 1412 may be associated with representation(s) for accessing the digital twin or the part(s) thereof (e.g. output product data set(s)). The decentral identifier included in the digital twin or the part(s) thereof stored in database 1412 may be associated with representation(s) for accessing the digital twin or a part thereof. The representation(s) may point to the database 1412 storing the digital win(s). The representation(s) may directly point to database 1412. The representation(s) may point to data providing node 118 associated with database 1412. This may increase security since the endpoint of database 1412 is not directly exposed within the decentral network 136. The representation(s) may include respective decentral identifier and access data. The access data may include a pointer or locator, such as an URI or URL, pointing to the database 1412 storing the digital twin. The representation(s) may be stored in decentral registry 1414 for access by decentral network participants. The decentral registry 1414 may be associated with data providing network node 118 associated with the data owner of the digital twin. This may allow to control access to such registry and access to representations stored in such registry by the data owner of the output product data associated with such representations via the data providing network node 118.

[0360] The digital twin or part(s) thereof may be associated with access rule(s) defining parties allowed to access the digital twin or part(s) thereof. The access rule(s) may allow to filter consumer node(s) based on decentral participant identifier(s) related to such consumer node(s). The access rule(s) may represent a whitelist of party / ies allowed to access the digital twin(s) or the part(s) thereof, allowing the data owner to ensure that no unauthorized party / ies can access the digital twin or part(s) thereof. The digital twin or part(s) thereof may further be associated with policy data including permission(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) of parties allowed to access the digital twin or the part(s) thereof. The access rule(s) and / or policy data may be linked via the decentral identifier to the respective digital twin or the part(s) thereof. The access rule(s) and policy data associated with the digital twin or part(s) thereof may be stored within provider node 118.

[0361] I / O device 1204 may be connected to backend 1214. backend 1214 may act as a server in relation to I / O device 1204. I / O device 1204 may be configured to provide data indicating gathering of output product data associated with the ranked public output product data to backend 1214. backend 1214 may be connected to a data consuming node 122 associated with the participant of the decentral network, such as end product producer 108. backend 1214 may be configured to provide a request to gather the output product data associated with the respective public output product data from the decentral network 136 to data consuming node 122 (see step [1]). The request may include the endpoint associated with the data provider node providing the output product data, such as the output product producer (e.g. chemical product producer 104 in the example illustrated in FIG. 14) and the decentral identifier associated with the output product data. The endpoint and decentral identifier may be included in the ranked public output product data received by backend 1214 from search service 116, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12A. The request may further include the output product name associated with the output product the public output product data is associated with.

[0362] Consumer node 122 may be configured to establish a peer-to-peer communication with the provider node(s) associated with the endpoint(s) included in the public output product data, such as provider node 118. Establishing a peer-to-peer communication may include authentication. Such authentication may be based on data related to an authentication mechanism. The authentication mechanism may be based on certificate(s) and / or token(s), for example a device certificate 240625

[0363] 70

[0364] (X.509v3), a TLS connection certificate (X.509v3) and a 'Dynamic Attribute Token’ (OAuth Access Token), associated with the respective decentral participant nodes, e.g. consumer node 122 and provider node 118. If authentication fails, provider node 122 may terminate the peer-to-peer communication without providing any data to consumer node 122 over such peer- to-peer communication channel. Upon successfully establishing a peer-to-peer communication with provider node 118, consumer node 122 may request access to the output product data based on the decentral identifier (see step [2]). The request may include the decentral participant identifier related to consumer node 122 and the decentral identifier included in the respective public output product data.

[0365] Provider node 118 may be configured to determine whether consumer node 122 is authorized to access the output product data set associated with the decentral identifier based on access rule(s) associated with such decentral identifier. Provider node 118 may compare the decentral participant identifier provided by consumer node 122 with decentral participant identifier(s) included in the access rule(s). If the decentral participant identifier provided by consumer node 122 does not match with any decentral participant identifier included in the access rule(s) consumer node 122 may not be authorized to access the output product data set and provider node 118 may terminate the peer-to-peer communication and may not provide any output product data. If the decentral participant identifier provided by consumer node 122 matches with a decentral participant identifier included in the access rule(s) consumer node 122 may be authorized to access the output product data and provider node 118 may be configured to generate an offer dataset based on policy data associated with the decentral identifier. The offer dataset may include policy data associated with the decentral identifier. Provider node 118 may provide the offer dataset to consumer node 122 for consent to the policy data.

[0366] Consumer node 122 may provide the offer dataset to backend 1214. backend 1214 may parse the received offer dataset to determine the prohibition(s), permission(s) and / or obligation(s) associated with the usage of the output product data by the data consumer. The determined prohibition(s), permission(s) and / or obligation(s) may be provided to I / O device 1204 for display within graphical user interface 1206. I / O device 1204 may be configured to detect a user input indicating consent or decline of the prohibition(s), permission(s) and / or obligation(s) and to provide the detected user input to backend 1214. The backend 1214 may be configured to automatically accept offer dataset(s) received from predefined provider node(s). The backend 1214 may provide data being indicative of acceptance, such as a token including the identifier associated with the offer dataset and proof data (e.g. an electronic signature), to consumer node 122. If the prohibition(s), permission(s) and / or obligation(s) are not accepted, the backend 1214 may likewise forward data being indicative of declining the prohibition(s), permission(s) and / or obligation(s) to consumer node 122. Consumer node 122 may forward this data to provider node 118. Upon declining, provider node 118 may terminate the connection and may not provide any output product data. Use of the offer dataset including prohibition(s), permission(s) and / or obligation(s) ensures that the consumer node 122 and further systems handling the data are complying to the prohibition(s), permission(s) and / or obligation(s) defined by the data owner of the output product data for such output product data.

[0367] Upon receiving data indicating acceptance to provider node 118 may generate an agreement dataset including a decentral agreement identifier, the decentral identifier associated with the output product data set and the policy data associated with the decentral identifier. The agreement data may indicate that an agreement on the policy data between data provider and 240625

[0368] 71 data consumer has been reached for a selected output product data set indicated in the agreement data via its associated decentral identifier. The agreement data may indicate that the data consumer accepted to adhere to permission(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) included in the policy data. Provider node 118 may provide the agreement dataset to consumer node 122. Consumer node 122 may provide the agreement dataset to backend 1214 for storage. This way, data contained in the agreement dataset may be reused for further queries to provider node 118.

[0369] In response to receiving the agreement dataset, consumer node 122 may be configured to request the output product data set at the data provider node 118 based on data included in the agreement dataset, such as the decentral agreement identifier and the decentral identifier(s) associated with the output product data set.

[0370] Provider node 118 may be configured to validate the received decentral agreement identifier, for example by comparing the received decentral agreement identifier with decentral agreement identifier(s) associated with valid agreements. This way, provider node 118 may ensure that the output product data set is only provided if a valid agreement on access data is existing between data provider and data consumer. The decentral agreement identifier(s) associated with valid agreements may be stored in a database of provider node 118. If the received decentral agreement identifier is valid, provider node 118 may be configured to gather the requested output product data set(s) from storage 1412 based on the decentral identifier(s) received from consumer node 122 (see steps [3], [4]). Provider node 118 may apply policy data associated with the output product data set(s) to the gathered output product data set(s). Provider node 118 may provide the output product data set(s) after application of the policy data to consumer node 122 (see step [5]). Consumer node 122 may provide the received output product data set(s) to backend 1214 (see step [6]). backend 1214 may be configured to store the received output product data set(s) in storage 1418 (see step [7]). backend 1214 may be configured to provide at least a part of the received output product data set(s) to I / O device 1204 for display to a user, such as end product producer 108.

[0371] By linking decentral identifier(s) to digital twin(s) of output product(s) and / or part(s) of such digital twin(s), access to such digital twin(s) or part(s) thereof can be controlled by the data owner of the digital twin(s). This way, data exchange within the decentral network can be facilitated in a secure way under control of the data owner of the digital twin. By using digital twin data (e.g. output product data) made publicly available with explicit consent of the data owner within the decentral network, such as received in response to a query to search service 116 storing publicly available output product data, participants of the decentral network can efficiently determine the digital twin(s) or part(s) thereof offered by data owners within the decentral network. However, access to such digital twin or part(s) thereof, in particular access to proprietary data included in the digital twin or part(s) thereof, is still controlled by the data owner of the digital twin irrespective of the output product data publicly available. Hence, transparency on available output product data within the decentral network is achieved while at the same time ensuring data sovereignty of the data owners of such output product data with respect to sharing of such output product data with participants of the decentral network.

[0372] FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a system and associated methods for transferring output product data associated with an output product within a decentral network from a data provider to data consumer(s) consuming the output product data and validating the consumed output product data. The output product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical 240625

[0373] 72 product, a component, a component assembly, an end-product or a recycled material. The output product may be produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2. The input material may include virgin material(s), recycled material(s), intermediate chemical product(s), chemical product(s), parts or components and / or component-assemblies. The production may be a chemical production. The chemical production may be a chemical production network as described in the context of FIG. 2. The production may be a discrete production. The decentral network may be a decentral network as described in the context of FIG. 1 . The data provider may be the data owner of the output product data, such as the output product producer. The data consumer may be any participant of the decentral network (see also FIG. 1). The system illustrated in FIG. 15 may be used to generate or update address data based on output product data made publicly available within the decentral network under control of the data owner of the output product data (e.g. public output product data). The address data may link output product data set identifier(s) associated with such output product data and endpoint data associated with data providing node(s) providing such output product data. The address data may be used to gather output product data (e.g. the public output product data and / or proprietary output product data) via the decentral network. The address data may represent a decentral identifier uniquely identifying the output product data within the decentral network 136. The system illustrated in FIG. 15 may be used to gather and validate output product data associated with the output product based on ranked public output product data received from a search service and matching query data associated with the output product, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B.

[0374] In the example the chemical product producer 104 is shown as one possible participant of the product ecosystem. Any other participant may be equally suitable as output product data provider, and the example should not be considered limiting.

[0375] I / O device 1204 may be coupled to backend 1214 via a communication interface. I / O device 1204 may be coupled to data transfer service 1508 via the communication interface. Data transfer service 1508 may generate query data in response to a user input received from I / O device 1204, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B. Data transfer service 1508 may provide the query data via the decentral network 136 or via a communication interface, such as an API to search service 116 (not shown in FIG. 15, see for example FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B). Data transfer service 1508 may receive ranked public output product data matching the query data from search service 116 via the decentral network 136 or via the API (not shown in FIG. 15, see for example FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B). Data transfer service 1508 may provide the received ranked public output product data to I / O device 1204 for display. I / O device 1204 may display ranked public output product data associated with an output product on user interface 1206, for example as illustrated in FIG. 13. The ranked public output product data may have been received by backend 1214, such as data transfer service 1508, in response to query data associated with output product(s) and having been provided via decentral network 136 to search service 116, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B. Data transfer service 1508 may be configured to generate and / or update address data based on the received ranked public output product data. The address data may include identifier(s), such as output product data identifier(s) and associated endpoint(s) of provider node(s) providing such output product data. Data transfer service 1508 may provide address data to a data storage (not shown). With reference to FIG. 13, the user interface may allow to connect to the data offer(s) (e.g. output product data) associated with ranked public output product data if the data provider published an endpoint associated with such data offer, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. The user interface may further allow to generate and / or update address data and / or may update address data stored in database 240625

[0376] 73

[0377] 1530 based on data, such as the decentral identifier and the endpoint, included in the ranked public output product data (respective button not shown in FIG. 13).

[0378] The public output product data may be associated with a digital twin of output product or a part thereof the public output product data is associated with. The digital twin of output product(s) may be stored in database(s) 1412 associated with or controlled by the data owner of the digital twin as described in the context of FIG. 14. The digital twin(s) stored in database 1412 may include a decentral identifier and output product data as described in the context of FIG. 14. The output product data may include one or more output product data set(s). The output product data set(s) may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 7B by applying one or more rule(s) associated with data model(s) of product(s) produced from the output product to output product data gathered prior to, during and / or after production of the respective output product. The output product data set(s) may be linked to the decentral identifier of the digital twin as described in the context of FIG. 14.

[0379] The digital twin or part(s) thereof stored in database 1412 may be associated with representation(s) for accessing the digital twin or the part(s) thereof (e.g. output product data set(s)) as described in the context of FIG. 14. The decentral identifier included in the digital twin or the part(s) thereof stored in database 1412 may be associated with representation(s) for accessing the digital twin or a part thereof as described in the context of FIG. 14.

[0380] The digital twin or part(s) thereof may be associated with access rule(s) defining parties allowed to access the digital twin or part(s) thereof as described in the context of FIG. 14. The digital twin or part(s) thereof may further be associated with policy data including permission(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) of parties allowed to access the digital twin or the part(s) thereof as described in the context of FIG. 14. The access rule(s) and policy data associated with the digital twin or part(s) thereof may be stored within provider node 118.

[0381] I / O device 1204 may be configured to provide data indicating gathering of output product data associated with the ranked public output product data to data transfer service 1508. I / O device 1204 may be configured to provide data indicating generating and / or updating of address data based on ranked public output product data to data transfer service 1508. This way, address data used to consume output product data set(s) may be generated and / or updated, allowing the entity operating backend 1214 to consume output product data set(s) without having to query the decentral network for respective endpoints of provider node(s) providing such output product data set(s). Via the public output product data, data providers may advertise available output product data set(s) to data consumer(s) and such data consumer(s) may use the public output product data to generate and / or update the address data for future consumption of output product data set(s) based on such address data. In response to such data received from I / O device 1204, data transfer service 1508 may generate and / or update address data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 16.

[0382] Data transfer service 1508 may be connected to a data consuming node 122 associated with the participant of the decentral network, such as end product producer 108. Data transfer service 1508 may be configured to generated and provide a request to gather the output product data associated with the respective public output product data from the decentral network 136 to data consuming node 122, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. Based on the request, the 240625

[0383] 74 output product data set may be gathered from the data provider via the decentral network 136 as described in the context of FIG. 14. Consumer node 122 may provide the gathered output product data set to data transfer service 1508.

[0384] Data transfer service 1508 may be connected to stream storage system 1518. Stream storage system 1518 may be connected to data transforming unit 1510. Data transforming unit 1510 may be positioned upstream from data transfer service 1508. Output product data gathered via the decentral network 136 may flow through data transfer service 1510 and stream storage system 1518 to data transforming unit 1510.

[0385] Data transfer service 1510 may be configured to receive output product data sets from consumer node 122. The output product data sets may represent a stream of data. Such a stream may be an ordered sequence of records received from consumer node 122 relatively continuously, i.e. not in accumulated batches or chunks. A record may for example comprise output product data associated with a given output product data via an input material identifier. A record may be in a tabular representation. A record maybe in an object representation, e.g. using JSON, an XML document. A record may be defined as data that can be delivered continuously in small chunks or increments. The records may or may not be time-ordered. Data transfer service 1508 may be configured to generate data package(s) including the output product data sets received from consumer node 122. A data package may be generated per received output product data set. The data package may include further data, such as a time stamp, a date stamp, the output product identifier associated with the output product data, the decentral participant identifier associated with the provider node, an endpoint of the provider node 118 or a combination thereof. The data package may represent a message or an event. The generated data package data may be provided to stream storage system 1518.

[0386] Stream storage system 1518 may be configured to store data packages received (e.g. pushed) from data transfer service 1508. The stream storage system 1518 may be configured to provide the stored data to data transforming unit 1510. The stream storage system 1518 may be configured to provide the stored data to data consuming unit 1514 of data transforming unit 1510. Stream storage system 1518 may comprise one or more persistent or non-persistent logs 1520, 1522. In this embodiment, stream storage system 1518 comprises two persistent or non-persistent logs 1520, 1522 (i.e. log 1 1520 and log 2 1522). Records stored in said logs may be ordered, for example by using IDs. This allows to identify a record within a specific log. A record may include a data package generated by data transfer service 1508.

[0387] Stream storage system 1518 may provide a streaming service or stream processing service between one or more streaming sources (e.g. data transfer service 1508) and one or more streaming sinks (e.g. log 1 1520 and log 2 1522). Stream storage system 1518 may act as a persistent or non-persistent stream sink for input material data received from consumer node 122. For example, open-source software systems such as Apache Kafka ("Kafka") or Azure Event Hubs may act as a persistent stream sink.

[0388] Stream storage system 1518 may be configured to pull output product data sets from data transfer service 1508. For instance, stream storage system 1518 may be configured to request output product data sets from data transfer service 1508 at regular time intervals. 240625

[0389] 75

[0390] Stream storage system 1518 may be configured to determine if the received or pulled output product data sets is already contained in the one or more persistent or non-persistent logs. If said output product data sets is already contained in the one or more persistent or non-persistent logs, stream storage system 1518 may not store the received or pulled output product data sets in said logs. If said output product data sets is not contained in one or more persistent or non-persistent logs or is an update, stream storage system 1518 may be configured to store the received or pulled output product data sets in the one or more persistent or non-persistent logs or to update output product data sets present in the persistent or non- persistent log(s) with the received or pulled updated output product data sets. This may avoid that the same output product data sets are stored multiple times in the persistent or non-persistent log(s), hence avoiding redundant validation operations on the output product data sets stored in stream storage system 1518.

[0391] Data transforming unit 1510 may be connected to the stream storage system 1518. Data consuming unit 1514 of data transforming unit 1510 may be connected to stream storage system 1518. Data consuming unit 1514 may be connected to one or more persistent or non-persistent logs (e.g. in this embodiment in log 1 1520 and log 2 1522) of stream storage system 1518 to ingest and process output product data stored within the log(s). The stream storage system 1518 may be in a publisher-subscriber relationship with the data consuming unit 1514. For instance, data in one or more the logs(s) may be periodically read (e.g. pulled) by data consuming unit 1514. To avoid consumption of a data package stored in a log several times, such data package may be marked as consumed by stream storage system 1518. To avoid consumption of a data package stored in a log several times, an integer indicating the offset of the next data package to consume may be used. Such integer may be just one number for each persistent or non-persistent log. Such integer may be periodically checkpointed. Use of such an integer may allow data consuming unit 1514 to re-consume data packages by rewinding the integer to an old offset.

[0392] Data consuming unit 1514 may be connected to data validation unit 1516 of data transforming unit 1510. Data consuming unit 1514 may be configured to provide data packages gathered from stream storage system 1518 to data validation unit 1516 for validation of output product data included in said data packages. Data consuming unit 1514 may be configured to extract output product data from the data packages and provide the extracted output product identifier and output product data to data validation unit 1516. The extracted output product identifier may be provided to a rule based engine included in data validation unit 1516. The rule based engine may have access to one or more rule(s). The rule based engine may include one or more rule(s). The one or more rule(s) may be present within a rule template. The one or more rule(s) and / or the rule template(s) may be stored in a data storage, such as rule DB 1512. The one or more rule(s) or rule template(s) may be provided to rule DB 1512 by a user. The one or more rule(s) may correspond to unstructured data associated with validation operation(s). The rule template(s) may include unstructured data associated with instructions related to validation operation(s). The one or more rule(s) or the rule template may be included in a file provided by the user. The one or more rule(s) or the rule template(s) may be associated with output product type identifier(s) and / or input material identifier(s). Rule based engine may generate a request to obtain one or more rule(s) from rule DB 1512. The request may contain the respective output product identifier(s). 240625

[0393] 76

[0394] One or more rule(s) associated with the output product data to be validated (e.g. one or more applicable rule(s)) may be provided to rule based engine in response to the request. The one or more rule(s) may define data point(s) and / or combination(s) of data point(s) to be present within the consumed output product data, e.g. to be present within a consumed output product data set. The one or more rule(s) may be associated with product(s) produced from the output product associated with the output product data to be validated. The product may be a component. The product may be a component-assembly. The product may be an end product. The product may be a chemical product. The one or more rule(s) may be associated with or derived from a data model associated with the product. Hence, the one or more rule(s) may ensure that data point(s) associated with output product(s) and being required according to the data model may be included in the consumed output product data. The one or more rule(s) may be defined by the mandatory output product data point(s) present within the data model. The one or more rule(s) may be generated based on the mandatory output product data point(s) present within the data model. This may ensure that output product data required by the data model is included in the consumed output product data. The one or more rule(s) may define one for more output product property data point(s), output product identifier data point(s), output product name data point(s), output product producer data point(s), output product declaration data point(s), output product safety data point(s), output product emission data point(s), output product recyclate content data point(s), output product biobased content data point(s), output product renewable content data point(s), output product biodegradability data point(s), output product production data point(s), output product certificate of analysis data point(s), output product certificate data point(s), output product life cycle data point(s), output product storage instruction data point(s), output product assembly instruction data point(s) and / or output product operating condition data point(s). The rule may define data point(s) per data category. The rule may define data point(s) for at least two different data categories. A data category may signify property data, declaration data, safety data, emission data, recyclate content data, biobased content data, biodegradability data, production data, certificate of analysis data, certificate data, storage instruction data, assembly instruction data or operating condition data. The one or more rule(s) may be associated with output product identifier(s) and / or output product type identifier(s). A mapping table may be used to map output product identifier(s) to corresponding output product type identifier(s). The output product type identifier(s) may be associated with output product type(s). The mapping table may be stored in a separate database (not shown). Rule based engine may be configured to gather output product type identifier(s) based on determined output product identifiers) and to request rule(s) based on the gathered output product type identifier(s). This may allow to gather rule(s) associated with output product type identifier(s) based on output product identifier(s), hence avoiding generation of rule(s) per output product identifier and reducing the number of rule(s) that need to be generated, stored and maintained in rule DB 1512.

[0395] Rule based engine may be configured to transform rule(s) or rule template(s) present in unstructured data form into code that can be executed by the processor. Execution of the code may result in applying the executable rule data to the extracted output product data to validate the consumed output product data according to the obtained rule(s). Execution of the logic may result in matching consumed output product data to data point(s) and / or combination(s) of data point(s) included in the executable logic, evaluating the data point(s) or combination(s) of data point(s) with matched output product data and generating validation result data based on the evaluation results. The validation result data may include a classifier and associated validated or non-validated output product data point(s). The classifier may be a binary classifier discriminating validated and non-validated output product data. Consumed output product data point(s) may be considered validated if one ...

Claims

24062592CLAIMS1 . A method for generating output product data to be published in a decentral network by a data providing service configured to provide the output product data in response to a request for such output product data, wherein the output product data to be published is associated with an output product produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, the method comprising: providing at least one output product data set associated with the output product, wherein the at least one output product data set includes output product data and a decentral identifier associated with the output product data, assigning to at least a part of the output product data included in the at least one output product data set one or more confidentiality level(s) indicating the degree of confidentiality of the output product data using a rulebased engine including one or more rule(s) associated with confidentiality level(s), generating the output product data to be published from the output product data set based on the confidentiality level(s), providing the generated output product data to be published for publishing in a decentral network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the output product data includes property data associated with the output product, the output product name, the output product producer, output product declaration data, output product safety data, emission data associated with the output product, recyclate content data associated with the output product, biobased content data associated with the output product, renewable content data associated with the output product, production data associated with the output product, certificate of analysis data associated with the output product, certificates associated with the output product, life cycle data associated with the output product, storage instruction data associated with the output product, assembly instructions associated with the output product, operating conditions associated with the output product or a combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the confidentiality level(s) define output product data to be published in the decentral network and output product data not to be published in the decentral network.

4. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the one or more rule(s) associated with confidentiality level(s) are generated from unstructured data associated with instructions related to the definition of output product data to be published, output product data to be kept confidential but available for sharing within the decentral network under control of a data owner of the output product data and output product data to be kept confidential and not to be shared within the decentral network.

5. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the output product data to be published includes an identifier associated with the output product data to be published and public output product data, wherein the public output product data is accessible via the decentral network based on the identifier associated with the output product data.240625936. The method of claim 5, wherein the public output product data includes property data associated with the output product, the output product name, the output product producer, output product declaration data, output product safety data, certificate of analysis data associated with the output product, storage instruction data associated with the output product, assembly instructions associated with the output product, operating conditions associated with the output product, policy data defining permission(s), obligation(s) and / or prohibition(s) of the data consumer with respect to the usage of the output product data, data model name(s) associated with data model(s) used to generate the output product data set(s), a decentral participant identifier associated with a data owner of the output product data, an endpoint of the data providing node associated with the data owner and providing the output product data and / or an indication that the output product data includes data designated as not to be published but available for sharing under control of the data owner of the output product data or a combination thereof.

7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the output product data to be published is generated by aggregating data included in the at least one output product data set and being associated with predefined confidentiality level(s).

8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein providing the output product data to be published for publishing includes providing the output product data to be published via the decentral network to a search service configured to search the received output product data for output product data satisfying a received search query and to provide the output product data satisfying the received search query.

9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the output product data to be published is provided under control of a data owner of the output product data to be published via a decentral network node associated with the data owner.

10. An apparatus for generating output product data to be published in a decentral network by a data providing service configured to provide the output product data in response to a request for such output product data, wherein the output product data to be published is associated with an output product produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, the apparatus comprising: a data providing interface configured to provide at least one output product data set associated with the output product, wherein the at least one output product data set includes output product data and a decentral identifier associated with the output product data, a rule-based engine including one or more rule(s) associated with confidentiality level(s) and configured to assign to at least a part of the output product data included in the at least one output product data set one or more confidentiality level(s) indicating the degree of confidentiality of the output product data, a public output data generator configured to generate the output product data to be published from the output product data set based on the confidentiality level(s) and to provide the generated output product data to be published for publishing in the decentral network.2406259411. A method for generating a search index from public output product data associated with output product(s) and received via a decentral network from public output product data provider(s), wherein the output product is produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, the method comprising: receiving via the decentral network the public output product data from the output product data provider(s), wherein the public output product data includes at least one identifier and public output product data associated with the output product(s) and wherein the public output product data is generated and provided according to the method of any one of claims 1 to 9 or by the apparatus of claim 10, creating at least one index entry for the received public output product data by associating at least a part of the data included in the received public output product data with the at least one identifier generating the search index from the at least one created index entry, providing the generated search index for access by a search engine configured to search the received public output product data for public output product data satisfying a received search query and to provide the public output product data satisfying the received search query.

12. A search service for returning public output product data associated with output product(s), wherein the output product is produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, the service comprising: a search index generated according to the method of claim 11, a database storing public output product data received via a decentral network from the output product data provider(s), wherein the public output product data is generated and provided according to the method of any one of claims 1 to 9 or by the apparatus of claim 10, a search engine configured to receive query data associated with the output product(s), to gather a plurality of candidate public output product data from the database based on the received query data and the search index and to provide the plurality of candidate public output product data, optionally a ranking module configured to rank the plurality of candidate public output product data based on the query data to obtain a final set of candidate public output product data and to provide the final set of candidate public output product data.

13. A method for controlling access to output product data associated with output product(s) via a decentral network, wherein the access is controlled by a data owner of the output product data via a data providing node associated with the data owner and wherein the output product is produced or producible from one or more input material(s) by a production, the method comprising: receiving via the decentral network a request to access the output product data, wherein the request includes a decentral identifier associated with the output product data and at least one digital credential(s) certifying that the entity on behalf of which the output product data is requested is associated with or owns company / ies registered in one or more country / ies, authenticating the received request based on the digital credential, optionally authorizing the received request,24062595 based on the authentication and optionally authorization, providing the output product data associated with the decentral identifier via the decentral network.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein access to the output product data is requested by a participant of the decentral network on behalf of the holder of the digital credential.

15. The method of claim 13 or 14, wherein authenticating the received request includes verifying the digital credential and / or the data included in the digital credential and / or comparing data included in the digital credential to data indicating companies allowed to access the output product data or to data indicating companies not allowed to access the output product data.

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