The EU (European Union) has initiated a project based on blockchain architecture and the usage of NFT (non-fungible token) to tackle the issues of counterfeiting and forgery. The project is the product of several blockchain hackathons and meetings organized by the European Union Intellectual Property Office and offers to develop digital twins of products to trace across supply lines.

European Union proposes to integrate NFTs to protect Intellectual Property

A recent announcement was made by European Union about its engagement in a project that will utilize the benefits of blockchain and NFTs as a step forward to fight against the forgery and counterfeiting of physical goods.

The project will be designed by the Intellectual Property Office of the EU and is the outcome of more than 5 years of effort and work.  In a document issued by the EU’s Intellectual Property Office, it is explained by the organization that they have selected a very high-level blockchain architecture for this task and give details on how it is going to work.

Source: WIPO/ACE/15/10 (English) (torrentfreak.com)

Digital Tokens (Twin NFTs) will be created by the Intellectual Property (IP) holders that will prove that the goods produced are authentic. But these IP holders should be first included as approved signatories to create these products on the tracking blockchain.

This will help the producers and IP holders track the supply chain of the products as the products are generally transported through different stages and checkpoints. This solution will ensure the IP holders that the products that reach stores are authenticated.

Implementation of the product:

It is expected by the European Intellectual Property Office to wind up the project by end of 2023, but to accomplish this objective, it will have to create a registry system to group all retailers, IP holders, logistics operations in the EU. To be more efficient and achieve its aim, it is stated that the system will seek to be interoperable with existing supply chain tracking solutions (BitCoin.com).

If the system is implemented by end of 2023; it will be one of the first applications of blockchain technology on a such large scale for fighting counterfeiting and forgery. However, blockchain has been integrated with supply line tracking before. Recently, a blockchain-based project named Vechain announced a partnership with a global supply chain technology solution, Orionone, with the objective of integrating blockchain into its working technologies.

However, European Union has currently engaged in the discussion of MiCA, a law proposal for regulating cryptocurrencies.