On April 17 last year, the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) created the genesis block on its IP Register blockchain. The blockchain is used for logging all registrations and updates to trademarks and design filings. This week the EUIPO announced that the patent offices of Poland and Italy are the latest to join the network, bringing the number of nodes on the network to six.
Historically the EUIPO’s TMView and DesignView have been centralized databases. Any centralized database risks going down and must be adequately secured to ensure no unauthorized changes. In contrast, because blockchains are decentralized, multiple nodes store copies of the data creating resiliency and rendering the database immutable. Security and integrity are critical for an intellectual property database.
One of the key things blockchains are known for is the ability to timestamp transactions. These timestamps determine the order of financial transactions, which is critical for money because otherwise people might spend currency they don’t have. But it’s also crucial for intellectual property registrations.
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