Is there any way to implement the namecoin protocol to:

[YmonAsterZ]

Register a trademark
Could I register a namecoin that registers a brand?

Register a patent
Could I register a namecoin that proves date of Invention?

Register a contract
Could I register a namecoin that proves 2 signatures and terms/conditions?

Register property
Could I register a namecoin that constitutes a title?


Suppose I create a business then register a namecoin for it. Can I sell parts of that namecoin as shares of the
company?

[domob]

Yes, Namecoin can be used for a variety of ways. Just some random thoughts regarding some of your questions (but that doesn't mean the others are not possible, I just didn't think about everything thoroughly and am sure others can chime in, too):

Patent/Timestamp: I did that already (not for patents, though). Since all you need to do is include a hash of your data "somehow" in the blockchain (so that it can be proven later by revealing the original data that it existed already at the block time it was included), there are a variety of ways to do that. You could register a name like "hash/YOURHASH", but I suggest to simply register an arbitrary name and set its value to your hash. To make sure you find it later, write down the name plus the txid somewhere. If you need to time stamp other data later, you can just reuse the name and name_update it to the new hash (since all history of a name, including the old value, is stored forever in the blockchain anyway).

Contract: I guess it depends a lot on what you really want to do here, but you can, for instance, also store a contract's hash as above. In addition, have your two parties create a id/ name for them (or just get a public Namecoin address) and "signmessage" the contract's hash with their address. Then you could publish both the contract's hash and the signatures in the blockchain, so that it can be proven later on that the contract was signed.

Smart property/shares: This is a very interesting usecase, and can be done with Namecoin very easily. Basically, names are in some sense "intrinsic coloured coins". So you can just register a name to represent your property / a bunch of names to represent shares and that's it. Users can send the names to each other as they want, and when you want to pay out dividends, for instance, you can just look up the names to find the current owners and pay to their addresses - which could either be stored in the name's value, or just to the address holding the name or whatever.

[tosh0]

when multisig and name-exchange is implemented, i think you could theoretically build a exchange for anything, using nmc's as collateral. since any name can be tied to any amount of nmc! you could use a nice escrow where 2 people put on scrow some nmc each and their nmc balance is tied until both agree that the transaction is done sucessfully.

And about shares
One of the advantages could be that when you hold a nmc-share made of 0.01 nmc you actually have something of value, unlike those shares on cryptostocks that are nothing more than thin air.
Or if you don't want the shares to have any value (you don't want your shares be dumped on an exchange for bitcoins) you could just register a name and then just send coins to people from an address that is under your control (cheaper than creating names) or send names with a value of 0.00000001nmc and you can still proof that you actually hold X nmc by having some on your name-address.

Of course do not ask when is going to be implemented, just ask if you can help implement it or offer a bountie

The main problem i see now is that there's no way to register forever some name, the data is stored forever but you have to keep renewing (it's free), so that's inconvenient but vital for the share/contract issuer and to maintain your id, but it can be sorted out if changes are made to allow the register of names for longer periods of time at once.

[cassini]

The main problem i see now is that there's no way to register forever some name, the data is stored forever but you have to keep renewing

No, it is just a matter of a concensus on the meaning of the "expired" field. For domain names, for example, we agreed the owner has to renew the name after a certain period of time.
For other types of namecoin uses you may want to ignore the expiration date. You can set up your own shares system, for instance, and the rule is "The blockchain's expiration date of our shares is irrelevant. Likewise, any update to the share's data is irrelevant. Only the first one who registered share no. sh/ff1d80824444a0b792ca82 is the unique owner."
(where "sh/ff1d80824444a0b792ca82" is the unique name of a share in this example)

[drllau]

Register a trademark
Could I register a namecoin that registers a brand?

Register a patent
Could I register a namecoin that proves date of Invention?

Register a contract
Could I register a namecoin that proves 2 signatures and terms/conditions?

Register property
Could I register a namecoin that constitutes a title?


Suppose I create a business then register a namecoin for it. Can I sell parts of that namecoin as shares of the
company?

Some imperfect understanding of global systems which I'll try to elucidate
1) the world works on a registry basis for trademarks in each geographical jurisdiction. you basically have to lodge (and pay fees) in each country ... attaching a hash of the submitted files (images, sound, etc) is more a mark of copyright as slight variations will have completely different hashes and wouldn't influence the determining factor of similar enough to confuse

2) The US moved away from first-to-invent to first-to-file in line with rest of world. What is important is the dependent claims (which are in the language of the originating country) and unless someone comes up with a very precision ontological language (as is the case with chemical compounds) it is hard to see what namecoin can add ... one aspect which potentially it can be used is marking the actual invention, the patent numbers can be encoded and embedded in a way with the namecoin attached to the patented device

3) contract ... you can basically use namecoin to sign the jurat (the signature block) however, if it comes to dispute, the courts would only consider that as part of evidence whether there was fraud, meeting of minds etc ... in other words not definitive except that such a contract was sighted at such a time (need to prove that the process of signing was contemporous with timestamp + namecoin

4) no as simple ... title of property is very specific, each comes under legislative requirements as to documentation, often written ... example is personal property securities act. Real property is quite detailed and crafting alienable rights require either contract, deed, or perfection of title.

5) shares are only defined in Companies Act (or unit trust) and have a bunch of other requirements like share registry and records of transactions under articles of association or constitution. A namecoin could be part of that (eg I'm working on simple pledge of shares) but namecoin alone is not sufficient .... remember it is only a global blockchain and it is all the other legalities which makes it a marketable instrument ... best analogy I can give is that the key-ring (namecoin blockchain) is not the safe (title to property).

[drllau]

And about shares
One of the advantages could be that when you hold a nmc-share made of 0.01 nmc you actually have something of value, unlike those shares on cryptostocks that are nothing more than thin air.
Or if you don't want the shares to have any value (you don't want your shares be dumped on an exchange for bitcoins) you could just register a name and then just send coins to people from an address that is under your control (cheaper than creating names) or send names with a value of 0.00000001nmc and you can still proof that you actually hold X nmc by having some on your name-address.

a share registry is one component of an exchange/market which requires a specific settlement backend. Here I'd advise looking at the new XML language for straight-thru processing. For the share-registry, you are basically record the public-key where a "dividend" (if any) is sent (apportioned according to the %shares held) and any legitimate name substitution (eg successor in case of death). What namecoin could potentially do is enforce "rules" on the share registry, ie force disclosure of beneficial interest .... we have the concept of provisional tax. At the moment, dividends are paid out according to the share registry at the timepoint at which it is declared and all the record will show is the nominee holder (it is possible to separate out the voting rights and economic rights so a nominee which can be an offshore tax advantaged entity) but certain countries insist on withholding taxes. So effectively you have a provisional dividend and during the financial year (which varies from place to place) you would issue the residual tax credit. In theory you could track the holding within the block chain to find the beneficial owner (and its ultimate tax liability).