The same technology has been used in time-stamping research notes generated in new product development, potentially for use as evidence in patent disputes.
Some "next-gen" uses of the bitcoin blockchain, off the top of my head: -- Decentralized stock markets ( https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Distributed_markets ) -- Electronic voting without a number of the trust problems. -- Banking transparency (eg, institutions could openly prove reserves, etc) -- Democratizing finance more generally ( http://www.bitcoinx.org/about/the-vision/ )
