Intellectual property rights intensive industries contribute 42% to the EU’s GDP and directly or indirectly support 38% of jobs. Infringement of intellectual property, such as counterfeiting and piracy, significantly harm EU growth, costing legitimate businesses €90bn and reducing employment by around 800,000 jobs every year.
According to Irish Tech News, recent statistics suggest that counterfeit products pilfer more than US$500bn from the fashion industry every year, and its supporting supply chain. Consumers are often unable to identify whether a product is authentic or not. In 2017, 10% of EU consumers, around 43 million citizens, were deceived into buying a fake product instead of a genuine one. This figure is equivalent to the combined populations of Belgium, Bulgaria, Ireland, Greece and Portugal.
Numerous technologies, procedures and tools already contribute to the fight against counterfeiting by verifying the authenticity of products and controlling the supply chain. These include track-and-trace systems, RFID, customs controls and specialised databases. However, systems are scattered, often working in silos, and illicit networks use this to their advantage.
In an effort to counteract this, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), through the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights and in partnership with the European Commission, has announced the first ever EU Blockathon, which will take place on 22-25 June 2018 in Brussels.
The Blockathon aims to gather together the best coders and creative minds to unlock the potential of blockchain and co-create an integrated solution to combat counterfeiting. Teams of coders, blockchain experts and stakeholders are invited to join the challenge, competing for a €100,000 prize. The aim is to provide enforcement authorities with the tools to rapidly identify fake products and criminal activity, helping legitimate companies to protect their business assets and enabling consumers to make more informed choices.
EUIPO executive director António Campinos says: “EUIPO is determined to explore the potential of blockchain to interconnect systems and ensure security and immutability of shared data in order to add trust to our legitimate ecosystem for the benefit of citizens, enforcers and companies alike. We believe a strong networked alliance can be built to secure logistics, ensure authenticity of goods, protect consumers and combat criminal and illegal activities.”
Many industries are starting to employ blockchain technologies for heightened product and transaction security, using smart contracts and distributed ledgers to track and trace products through the supply chain. Bloomberg reported last week that Google is working on blockchain-related technology to support its cloud business, for example. As blockchain can be used to process data over the internet, development of distributed digital ledgers could eliminate risks that come with information being held centrally by a single company.
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