• The roles of VeChain or other blockchain technologies in reducing counterfeit products from the toy ecosystem have been highlighted in a recent post.

• However, there are challenges with implementation such as time and financial commitment. 

The efforts to harness the potential of blockchain technology cut across several industries and countries. VeChain (VET), for instance, has unlocked several use cases in areas including supply chain management, medicine, agriculture, education, etc. The latest NanoJClean publication has discussed the importance of blockchain certificate storage and anti-counterfeiting traceability solutions in promoting standardization around IP authorization.

The article titled “Anti-counterfeiting and IP Copyright Protection of Toys Peripherals Under the Barbie Boom” explains how the live-action movie, “Barbie” has brought back to life the old Barbie IP, and also transform the toy market. Barbie is a 2023 American fantasy comedy movie directed by Greta Gerwig. 

According to digital brand protection firm Brand Shield, searches for Barbie-related keywords have increased by 500 percent. Also, between 150 and 200 fake Barbie websites are registered in a day.

Multinational Digital Business consultant company LatentView Analytics, has mentioned that the growing e-commerce platforms have led to the surge of counterfeit products. 52 percent of brands have agreed that the problem of counterfeit products has become more serious now.

According to the publication, Barbie has had several requests to co-brand. Mattel, an intellectual property of Barbie has co-branded with more than 100 brands with thousands of peripheral products produced. Over 10 billion views have so far been produced on the internet. 

Where the VeChain blockchain Comes in

In general terms, the number of IP authorizations is growing as brand owners extend the reach of their IPs to different products and fields through authorization cooperation. However, the publication highlights some potential problems. These include copyright protection, identity authentication, and quality control in the authorization process. These potentially damage the image of the brands. 

As these problems arise, the decentralization and the non-tampering protection characteristic of blockchain technology such as VeChain is said to be a perfect fit for the anti-counterfeiting and copyright protection challenges of the toy market.

Based on the concept of the “new media” by Paul Levinson, VeChain can “create a trusting environment for value exchange for creators, copyright owners, and users by restricting the authenticity of information at the technical level.”

The blockchain can generate a “digital copyright unique identifier” when works are uploaded through related platforms. This clarifies ownership issues while ensuring that technical tools for IP-crowd creation for the right confirmation are provided. 

IP-authorized peripheral objects equipped with encrypted chips or QR code labels can generate unique digital identities for each peripheral for authenticity identification.

Such digital identities record important information including production, transportation, and sales of toys. While this enables transparent supply chain management to be achieved, it prevents the situation of fleeing goods. Consumers would be able to verify the authenticity of the product by just scanning the data on the blockchain. The traceability mechanism can also drastically reduce counterfeit products and improve the recognition of brand IP by consumers. 

The publication also highlights some challenges of blockchain application in toy anti-counterfeiting and copyright protection.

Firstly, the establishment of blockchain-related facilities and technology requires time and financial commitment. Also, the cooperation and commitment of all links such as brand owners, sellers, and manufacturers are required for the reliability and authenticity of data on the blockchain to the assured. 

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