IP Australia has been recognised for its initiatives in blockchain with an award at the Australian Blockchain Industry Awards in Sydney.
The Agency won Australia’s first ever Blockchain Project (Government) award for all its blockchain discovery projects including the Smart Trade Mark initiative and work completed with blockchain start-up, Civic Ledger.
Director General of IP Australia, Michael Schwager said winning the inaugural award was a great achievement.
“Innovation and intellectual property are synonymous, and we have been lucky enough to work with some of Australia’s most advanced companies when it comes to blockchain,” Mr Schwager said.
“IP Australia continues to be a test-bed for Government innovation, and it’s great we can celebrate this award win in Innovation Month.”
He said IP Australia’s work with Civic Ledger focused on understanding how blockchain could integrate into the existing IP rights management system.
“This included exploring a future IP rights ecosystem that leveraged the distributed nature of blockchain and its potential to promote the global trade and commercialisation of IP,” Mr Schwager said.
“Working with Canberra-based IT company, Agile Digital, IP Australia also undertook a blockchain-backed project, Smart Trade Mark. The pilot focused on Australian trade mark owners and protection against counterfeiting in global marketplaces.”
He said the Smart Trade Mark pilot used blockchain to create a digital fingerprint for registered trade mark owners to establish product provenance.
“Backed by the findings from the Smart Trade Mark pilot, IP Australia is currently developing a beta product, which gives a unique digital stamp of an Australian trade mark,” Mr Schwager said.
“Using the blockchain fingerprint, IP Australia is giving customers the ability to create a unique seal for both digital and physical products. We will release more information about this project in the coming months.”
