Building trust in digital economy

While IPR protection will have to rely mainly on contractual mechanisms, technology is increasingly offering means to enforce IPR protection via technical solutions. The study was to identify the approaches that are ready for operational use and can be implemented as part of the common architecture. 

The implementation strategy defined aftr user consultation entailed development of the IPR traceability services using the Merkel tree hash-functions which are the underlying the cryptographic element of the blockchain data structures. This approach has been independently validated by the Nov. 2020 announcement of the European Commission Action Plan for Intellectual Property Right Protection which is addressing the impact of new technologies (such as AI and blockchain) on the IP system. The underlying ambition of the European Commission is to create a ground breaking unitary system for Patent and IP recognition and dramatically increase the IP registration by SMEs using blockchcain-driven services to be offered by the EU Intellectual Property Office (EU IPO). A liaison with the EU Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has been established and EU IPO  demonstrated own blockchain-based IP infrastructure being developed for all European IPOs. There are multiple other initatives at the EU IPO that will drive the digitisation and innovation agenda and it was agreed that multiple checkpoints will continue to enhance the cooperation opportunity and for ESA  to represent the EO sector IP perspectives to the EU IPO stakeholders.

The project has demonstrated blockchain-based IP protection/registration/traceability services deployed on the ESA Coastal TEP. The video demonstration of the Proof-of-Concept is available at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNePkHV3wXsrgHMrChF-Ws1FLGMoub-d9