A Trademarks Application, Payment, Objection, Registration and Reporting System Using Blockchain Smart Contract

The global economy is undergoing a remarkable transformation due to the witnessed scientific revolution, where new products and services are introduced. Consequently, a knowledge-based world economy emerged with Intellectual Property at its core. One of the substantial types of intellectual property is Trademark. It is a valuable intangible asset that opens doors for a wide span of opportunities that promote innovation and create jobs. Trademarks are tremendously important for countries’ economic development and global competitiveness. Therefore, effective trademark protection is a crucial issue. Countries set strong legal measures to protect trademark ownership and registration rights. Unfortunately, present trademark management systems have several problems including centralizations, lengthy procedures, amount of paperwork, cost and lack of secured authentication method. To overcome these shortcomings and develop an enhanced business model that is consistent with the level of importance of the trademark industry, trademark registration systems need to be significantly improved using the most advanced technologies. Blockchain is considered an ideal solution to address trademark management system issues and support efficient trademark management operations due to its unique characteristics of authenticity, traceability, decentralization and trust. This research developed a blockchain system that supports new trademark application submission, objection submission and decision, cryptocurrency payment, automated final registration and announcement and reporting processes. The deployment and testing of our Ethereum smart contract were completed successfully and demonstrated accurate and effective performance of system operations.