EUIPO Unveils EBSI-ELSA for Global Supply Chain Product Authentication

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has unveiled EBSI-ELSA, its new brand name for the European Logistics Services Authentication (ELSA) initiative for products within the global supply chain (using the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure), EBSI.

The EBSI-ELSA platform is designed to assist in combating the €412 billion a year global trade in counterfeit goods by providing a scalable, decentralised blockchain authentication platform that brands can use to prove the authenticity of their products. In addition, the initiative aims to reassure and protect European consumers, as many of them are unsure of the authenticity of the products they buy.

Since 2019, EUIPO has been exploring the potential of blockchain technology to ensure product authentication and to transition away from isolated systems, given that silos (ie. closed environments) are more vulnerable to exploitation by criminal networks.

Following the 2018 EU Blockathon competition, as well as the subsequent establishment of the Blockathon Forum in 2020, and the development of a strategic project to construct an anti-counterfeiting blockathon infrastructure, the EUIPO has made significant progress towards ensuring product authenticity throughout the supply chain.

At the end of 2022, EUIPO carried out real-life operational tests in the form of a cooperative pilot project with four brand owners in the automobile, electronics, pharmaceutical, and clothing industry, as well as two logistics operators and Dutch customs. The tests consisted of tracking product journeys from manufacturing sites outside Europe to EU-based local distribution centres.

Following the tests, the EUIPO has now finalised EBSI-ELSA’s proof of concept.

This initiative combines EBSI ( the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure) with the concept of digital twins to provide each product, or shipment of products, with a machine-readable label that takes the form of a QR code, RFID or NFC tag. Each label embeds a serialisation code protected by the brand owner’s signature, and authenticated through its EU IP rights, to create an immutable link between the serialised code of the genuine product and its digital representation.

The platform has two components:

• Identity register: this gives brand owners verifiable credentials to sign digital twins of physical products. Relying on existing EUIPO registers for trademarks and designs, it also acts as a public repository of verified brand owners’ signatures for all parties in the chain.

• Logistic open protocol: this offers a common language for track and trace providers and brand owners to collect and share data for anti-counterfeiting operations. This protocol also notarises a blockchain audit trail of the product shipment history and relevant events.

By the end of 2023, EBSI-ELSA is expected to be an open-source platform to authenticate products and exchange data between all the parties in the supply and logistics chain, interconnecting products’ track and trace solutions with the risk analysis systems of enforcement authorities and EUIPO tools (TMview, DesignView, IPEP and IP Register in Blockchain). In this way, customs officers and transport and logistic operators can boost their process productivity and focus their efforts on suspicious goods.

At the same time, brand owners can use the proof of authenticity in litigation cases (eg. parallel imports) and have a clear overview of their products’ journey from manufacturer to reseller.

By 2024, the objective is to synchronise IP authenticity management between all parties involved in a supply chain: EU intellectual property offices, governments, customs authorities, manufacturers, transport and logistics operators, intermediaries and retailers.

https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/web/observatory/blockathon.