EUIPO and the European Commission are hosting the Blockathon in Brussels from 22 to 25 June to join the alliance against fake products and to co-create the next level of anti-counterfeiting infrastructure. Teams have until midday on Monday 30 April to apply!

As mentioned on this blog in March, the Blockathon will bring together specialists in law, IP rights, anti-counterfeiting, track and trace, ecosystem dynamics, logistics and security to support the 10 selected teams. The total prize to be awarded is €100,000.

Applications can be made online up until the deadline.

More details are in the announcement from the EU Observatory:

The Observatory is pleased to announce that the Blockathon competition has been launched on 26 March, with the publication of dedicated web pages www.blockathon.eu and promotion on various social media channels, and in media as well as towards the Blockchain Community. The Blockathon, first collaborative blockchain competition in relation to intellectual property organised in partnership with the European Commission and scheduled to take place from 22 to 25 June 2018 in the emblematic Autoworld Museum in Brussels, is part of the Observatory work programme 2018.

Its success will essentially rely on its capacity to attract the best teams and recruit relevant participants that want to make an impact toward co-creating the next level anti-counterfeiting infrastructure on blockchain. The competition will be attractive for the blockchain community and for participants if it can showcase the involvement of the anti-counterfeiting community, namely relevant stakeholders, private, public, civil society as well as policy makers.

This week EUIPO announced that Vice-President of the EU Commission, Andrus Ansip, will attend the Blockathon.