Almost every European company has registered a word or figurative mark with the EUIPO, the European Union Intellectual Property Office in Alicante. One of the main tasks of this trademark register is to protect intellectual property, and, above all, to combat product piracy, which causes billions of euros in damage to producers of branded goods every year.
But despite the large number of direct working relationships with the EUIPO, few people know that the colleagues in Alicante are also pioneers in innovation – they have been working on blockchain-based solutions for years in collaboration with the European Commission and partners from many countries. The resulting project, called EBSI-ELSA, is based on the European Blockchain Service Infrastructure EBSI.
While the EUIPO has presented the technical platform for the EBSI-ELSA project in June 2024 and thus showing how it intends to design the ‘European Logistics Services Authentication’ in the future, another deadline has been set for the middle of July 2024: The EUIPO has launched a call for interest and is accepting applications until the end of the month: the authority wants to launch the first five MVPs on the platform and to do so, work with brands, service providers and customs authorities. And of course, this is an opportunity that German brands and service providers should also use – because who would not benefit from more transparent and efficient supply chains and border controls? That is why we want to discuss the environment of this European lighthouse project in a webinar and invite everyone to take part in the EUIPO’s call:
https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/observatory/enforcement/blockathon/call-for-interest
But of course, this project cannot live in isolation, and that is why have also taken a look at the points of contact and compatibility with other strategic European initiatives, such as the upcoming Digital Product Passports (see: https://bit.ly/3VsOcrT) and other private sector supply chain initiatives, e.g., the framework of Catena-X.
We have been delighted to welcome the following guests for this webinar on June 27th, 2024:
Nicolas Hauw, Project Specialist, EUIPO
Dr. Joachim Schwerin, Principal Economist, European Commission, DG GROW
Izzat-Begum Rajan, Board Member, INATBA & CEO, Imani Partners
Dr. Carsten Stöcker, CEO, Spherity
Daniel Heinen, Board Member, Bundesblock & Managing Director, Xioni GmbH
Sebastian Becker, Managing Director, Bundesblock & Board Member, INATBA
Patrick Struckmann, Scientific Researcher, Technical University Dortmund
The webinar’s agenda was:
16:30h Welcome Statements & opening // Daniel Heinen & Izzat-Begum Rajan
16:40h The EUIPO Call for Interest: EBSI-ELSA’s role as an EU Lighthouse Blockchain Project: Nicolas Hauw
17:05h Panel: Digital Product Passports, Anti-Counterfeiting and Circular Economies: How to Orchestrate the European Approaches // Dr. Carsten Stöcker, Izzat-Begum Rajan, Dr. Joachim Schwerin, Patrick Struckmann, Nicolas Hauw
17:45h Fireside Chat: The EU Commission’s Strategy for Industrial Innovation and Sovereignty // Dr. Joachim Schwerin & Sebastian Becker