Kjell Halvor Landsverk

In today’s digital economy, brand protection is more critical than ever. Counterfeit goods and brand impersonation are surging – global losses from fake and pirated products are projected to exceed $4.2 trillion annually by 2028 . Little wonder, then, that around 15 million trademarks are filed worldwide each year, and the online brand protection market is forecast to reach $35 billion by 2028 . New technologies are emerging to tackle these challenges. One such innovation is the BlockMark platform and its blockchain-based “Blockmark” certificates. But while a Blockmark offers rapid, borderless brand protection online, it is not a replacement for a good old-fashioned trademark. Instead, the two forms of protection serve complementary roles. This article explains why a Blockmark and a trademark work best hand-in-hand – especially for entrepreneurs looking to safeguard their brands in a practical, risk-managed way.

The Promise of the Blockmark (Blockchain Brand Protection)

Traditional trademark systems have well-known limitations in our global, internet-driven market. Trademarks are inherently jurisdictional – you must register in each country or region where you want protection . The process can be slow, complex and expensive, often involving legal paperwork, fees, and months (if not years) of waiting . Enforcement is fragmented too: even after you get a trademark, stopping infringers typically requires court action in each jurisdiction, which is lengthy and costly . Many smaller companies simply forego registering trademarks at all because the process is so daunting . This is the gap that BlockMark aims to fill.

BlockMark is a platform that leverages blockchain technology to offer instant, global brand protection in the form of a Blockmark certificate. In essence, a Blockmark is a digital record of brand ownership stored on a blockchain. Registering your brand on BlockMark puts it into a single global registry, eliminating the need for country-by-country filings . Once you register a name, you select which countries it should cover . This unified approach means a business can stake its claim to a brand name worldwide in one go.

What truly makes BlockMark innovative is its enforcement mechanism. BlockMark partners with key internet infrastructure players – domain registrars, hosting providers, and e-commerce platforms – to enable automated takedowns of infringing content . In practice, this works via smart contracts and integrations: if someone uses your brand without permission (for example, a scam website or a counterfeit product listing), BlockMark can trigger an immediate response. Offending domains might be suspended or fake product listings removed within minutes, all automatically and without the need for you to send legal notices or file lawsuits . These real-time, automated enforcement actions give brand owners fast relief against online infringement – a stark contrast to the slow, court-based enforcement of traditional trademarks.

Equally important, a Blockmark creates a verifiable proof-of-ownership for your brand. Each Blockmark certificate is recorded on an immutable blockchain ledger with a timestamp, providing indisputable evidence that you claimed the name first . This can be very handy in disputes: anyone can independently verify when a brand was registered on BlockMark and who owns it, thanks to the transparent and tamper-proof nature of blockchain records. In short, a Blockmark offers a fast, global, and scalable way to secure your brand online – it’s essentially a tech-powered first line of defense for your brand identity. It’s also cost-effective: by bypassing many traditional legal processes, BlockMark’s model is designed to be affordable and accessible to businesses of all sizes .

Blockmark ≠ Legal Exclusivity (The Limits of Blockchain-Only Protection)

Despite its advantages, a Blockmark by itself does not confer legal exclusivity over a brand name in the eyes of the law. In other words, owning a Blockmark is not the same as owning a registered trademark. There is currently no jurisdiction where a blockchain brand certificate gives you the statutory rights that a government-issued trademark does. This is a crucial point for entrepreneurs to understand: a Blockmark is not a legal status, it’s a private enforcement and verification tool.

What does this mean in practice? Imagine you register your brand name as a Blockmark on the blockchain. You now have a globally visible claim and some deterrence power online. However, if another party later goes and registers that same name as an official trademark in a country where you do business, they could gain superior legal rights to the name in that jurisdiction – rights that your Blockmark alone cannot override. Trademark law in most countries operates on a first-to-file principle: the first person to register a mark with the government often gets the rights, even if someone else was using it informally earlier . Your Blockmark registration date might not count, because it’s not an official trademark filing. The result? That other party could potentially stop you from using your own brand name in that country, even forcing you to rebrand, despite your having a prior Blockmark. And you would have little recourse in court, since your Blockmark isn’t recognised by courts or trademark offices as a source of exclusivity.

This scenario is not far-fetched. Trademark rights are territorial, and you acquire them by registering in each territory (or through use in some cases) . A Blockmark, no matter how global in reach, does not automatically give you trademark rights in any country’s legal system. Until laws evolve to integrate blockchain registries (something that may happen down the line, but hasn’t yet), the only way to secure formal, exclusive rights to a brand name is to register an official trademark.

Why Trademarks Still Matter: Legal Rights and Enforcement

Traditional registered trademarks remain the gold standard for legally protecting a brand. When you register a trademark with a government authority (such as the UK Intellectual Property Office, the EUIPO, or the USPTO in the U.S.), you obtain a bundle of exclusive rights under the law. In principle, a valid trademark registration gives you the exclusive right to use that mark for the goods or services covered – no one else can use a confusingly similar name in that domain . These rights come with the weight of law: you can license the mark to others or stop unauthorized use, and your ownership is usually presumed in legal disputes . Perhaps most importantly, trademark rights are enforceable in court. If someone infringes your mark, you can take legal action – courts can issue injunctions to halt the infringement and award damages or other remedies as appropriate. In fact, having a trademark registration in hand greatly strengthens your position in any litigation or dispute . It provides the legal certainty that the brand is yours, which a judge will recognise.

Trademark protection is also backed by an international framework of treaties and laws. For example, agreements like the Paris Convention and systems like WIPO’s Madrid Protocol help trademark owners extend protection to multiple countries relatively efficiently . Practically speaking, if you plan to expand your business internationally, you’ll want to secure trademarks in your key markets sooner rather than later. Many jurisdictions have a “first to file” rule, meaning whoever registers the name first wins the rights – as noted, they don’t care who had a blockchain record or a website first . So, while a Blockmark might give you a head start in claiming a name online, it doesn’t reserve your spot in the legal system. Only an official trademark does that. And for serious brand protection, especially as your company grows, those official rights are indispensable. They enable you to bring the full force of the law – customs seizures, lawsuits, police action if necessary – against counterfeiters or imposters, beyond the digital takedowns that BlockMark facilitates.

Balancing Speed and Surety: Blockmark First, Trademark Next?

For many small businesses and startups, the traditional trademark process can feel overwhelming at the beginning. It costs money, takes time, and requires dealing with bureaucracies or lawyers. Early-stage companies may be unsure which markets to file in or whether a name will even stick, so they delay trademark applications. As a result, a lot of entrepreneurs operate unregistered (at least initially). Indeed, many companies do not register their trademarks at first because the process is complex and cumbersome . A Blockmark can be extremely useful in this context. It offers an immediate layer of protection and visibility for your brand without the red tape. By registering your brand on BlockMark, you quickly gain a globally verifiable claim to that name and a measure of enforcement capability online. If you’re a small outfit selling mainly on the internet, this could deter copycats and squatters from day one – something a trademark (which might not be granted until months later) couldn’t do as quickly.

However, as your business grows, the calculus changes. High-value brands, or businesses planning to raise capital or expand internationally, should not rely on a Blockmark alone. If you’re seeking investment, for instance, savvy investors will ask whether your brand name is legally protected. Venture capital due diligence often includes checking if a startup has filed trademark applications in key markets – because no one wants to invest in a brand that could be easily stolen or legally challenged. Similarly, when expanding into new countries, you don’t want to discover that someone else has already trademarked “your” name there (perhaps noticing your success and beating you to the registry). Unfortunately, these scenarios do happen – if you delay too long, copycats in other countries can appropriate your brand and file a trademark first, potentially blocking your entry into those markets . The prudent strategy for a growing business is to complement the Blockmark with official trademarks in the markets that matter most to you.

Think of the Blockmark as your first line of defence, and registered trademarks as the definitive insurance policy. The Blockmark gives you rapid, tech-driven protection and helps police the vast, borderless realm of the internet. The trademark gives you ironclad legal ownership and recourse through courts and authorities. Used together, you cover both bases: the digital enforcement side and the legal rights side. For example, a company might start by securing a Blockmark to get immediate global coverage on day one, and then, as the business gains traction, proceed to file for national trademarks in its primary countries/regions. This hybrid approach means you’re less exposed during those early months of branding, but you’re also building a fortress of legal rights for the long term.

It’s worth noting that BlockMark, as a company, recognises the complementary role of trademarks in its vision. Far from positioning Blockmarks as a total replacement for trademarks, BlockMark’s services actually embrace a hybrid model. The platform works via partnerships not only with online intermediaries but also with traditional legal experts. (In fact, BlockMark’s business model includes enterprise partnerships with corporate legal firms alongside registrars and hosting providers .) The company offers assistance with trademark registration as an add-on to its blockchain product, so that clients can seamlessly upgrade their protection from purely digital to full legal coverage. In other words, BlockMark knows that to fully safeguard a brand, you often need to be on the blockchain and on the trademark register.

Case in Point: BlockMark’s Own Trademark Journey

Example: Even BlockMark practised this dual strategy. BlockMark’s team secured a European Union trademark for the name “Blockmark” in addition to their blockchain registry. They filed the EU trademark application in March 2025 and achieved registration by mid-August 2025 – as evidenced by the official certificate pictured above. This EU trademark (No. 019153427) is now registered to BlockMark LLC, giving the company formal exclusivity over the “Blockmark” name across all EU member countries . The blockchain-based Blockmark provided global online protection from the start, but the trademark solidified the company’s legal rights to the name under EU law. This combination allows BlockMark to both enforce its brand online through its technology and defend its brand offline in courts if necessary.

This example perfectly illustrates how Blockmarks and trademarks can complement each other. The Blockmark alone gave fast, worldwide notice of the brand claim and a mechanism to snuff out infringing domains or listings instantly. The trademark, obtained in parallel, then bolstered that protection by adding the muscle of legal exclusivity – ensuring no competitor can legally operate under the “Blockmark” name in the EU. Together, they provide a one-two punch: technology-driven enforcement plus legal rights. Entrepreneurs should take a cue from this: if the very company promoting blockchain brand protection took the time to register a conventional trademark for itself, there’s a good reason. It’s wise to cover all bases.

Blockmarks are an extremely useful new tool in the brand protection toolkit. They offer speed, global reach, and scalability that traditional trademark systems struggle to match. For a young business, a Blockmark can deliver quick wins – deterring bad actors online and establishing an early claim to your name across the internet. However, a Blockmark isn’t a legal silver bullet. To truly own your brand name in every sense, you will eventually need the backing of formal trademark rights. The prudent approach is not “Blockmark vs. trademark,” but Blockmark plus trademark. By using a blockchain Blockmark for rapid, automated enforcement and securing registered trademarks for long-term legal exclusivity, businesses can enjoy the best of both worlds. This complementary strategy mitigates risk on all fronts: you get instant brand protection in the digital realm and ironclad rights in the legal realm. In a hybrid world of decentralised digital platforms and nation-based laws, savvy entrepreneurs will leverage both to protect what is often their most important asset – their brand.

In short: a Blockmark can stake your claim and guard it in real time, but a trademark makes it official and defendable under law. Wise entrepreneurs will want both tools working in tandem to shield their brand as they innovate and grow. The blockchain may be rewriting the rules of brand enforcement, but it hasn’t rewritten trademark law – so a smart brand protection strategy embraces the new without abandoning the old. It’s about marrying the agility of technology with the security of legal rights, ensuring your brand is safe today, tomorrow, and for the long haul.

Moreover, AI assistance now extends to determining the proper scope of protection. Advanced systems can infer from a business’s own materials – even something as simple as a website URL – what goods or services a brand covers, and thus which trademark classes (the Nice Classification) an application should include. In the past, choosing the right classes was an arcane art requiring expert knowledge of the 45 Nice classes, from Class 9 (software) to Class 25 (clothing). Today, tools deployed by IP offices like the EUIPO use AI-based semantic search to suggest the appropriate goods and services classifications during filing . In other words, an entrepreneur can describe their product in plain language (or AI can glean it from their website), and the AI will map it to the formal classes needed. This dramatically lowers the barrier for newcomers to navigate trademark filing requirements.

Crucially, AI is not only accelerating registration – it’s transforming enforcement and monitoring as well. Traditional trademark enforcement has been largely reactive: rights owners (or their lawyers) scour marketplaces and the internet for infringement, a time-consuming and imperfect process. But AI-driven monitoring systems can now patrol the digital marketplace continuously, scanning e-commerce listings, social media, and web content for unauthorized uses of a brand . These systems leverage image recognition and text analysis to flag when a logo or name is being used without permission, even if altered or obfuscated. A robust AI can detect, for example, a counterfeit logo on a shopping site or a confusingly similar brand name popping up in online ads – and do so in real time . The upshot is that brand owners can be alerted to infringements instantly, rather than discovering them months later after damage is done.

Equally important is the quality of AI judgment in these tasks. Early-generation tools often overwhelmed users with false positives or missed subtle cases that a seasoned lawyer would catch. But the state-of-the-art in 2025 is far more refined. Today’s AI trademark assistants benefit from training on decades of trademark decisions and data. They have become adept at the kind of nuanced reasoning that was once a human monopoly – for example, understanding that two identical names might coexist if operating in completely unrelated industries, but not if their markets overlap. In short, AI has evolved from a novelty to a truly useful “paralegal” (or better) for trademark work, handling the heavy lifting of searches, classifications, and monitoring. This emergence of reliable AI trademark expertise is a key factor making a platform like BlockMark feasible now, whereas such an idea would have struggled in 2022.

Blockchain Grows Up: From Hype to Trustworthy Infrastructure

Parallel to AI’s rise, the past few years have seen blockchain technology mature from a speculative buzzword to a credible foundation for serious applications. It’s no secret that blockchain (the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies) went through a classic hype cycle in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Many bold promises fizzled, and by 2019 skepticism was rampant. However, as of 2025, the narrative around blockchain in industry has shifted profoundly. The technology has “matured beyond the hype”, finding genuine utility beyond crypto trading . Today, blockchain is increasingly invisible yet indispensable – much like how we use the internet without thinking of TCP/IP protocols . It has become an “infrastructure layer for trust” in various domains , which is exactly what an immutable global trademark system demands.

One clear sign of this maturation is the stance of institutions that once kept blockchain at arm’s length. Major banks, financial firms, and even governments are now deploying blockchain solutions in mission-critical areas. For example, by mid-2025 nearly 90% of businesses surveyed report using blockchain in some capacity, often in back-office processes or supply chain management . In finance, the most conservative of sectors, household names have embraced tokenization and distributed ledgers. Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon, for instance, have integrated blockchain to tokenize billions of dollars in assets for faster settlement . HSBC and Bank of America – hardly techno-utopian startups – recently partnered to adopt a public blockchain (the Solana network) for certain transactions, transitioning from closed pilots to real-world use of a decentralised network . These developments show that blockchain is no longer viewed as a risky experiment; it’s becoming a trusted part of the IT stack. Serious institutions have gained confidence in blockchain’s security, scalability and governance, thanks to years of hardening the technology and clearer regulatory frameworks. As a result, proposing a blockchain-based global registry in 2025 does not invite raised eyebrows; it’s seen as a logical next step.

Another factor is the refinement of blockchain itself. Early blockchains (like the first iteration of Ethereum) were often too slow, energy-intensive, or inflexible for mainstream use. But newer platforms and upgrades have addressed many of these issues. Transaction speeds and capacities have improved, and energy usage has plummeted with moves to proof-of-stake and other efficient algorithms. Interoperability – different blockchains talking to each other – is also advancing, aided by industry initiatives and standards . For a global trademark ledger, this maturation means the underlying tech is robust enough to handle millions of records and queries, and to interface with other systems reliably. Importantly, blockchain’s core advantages align perfectly with trademark needs: an immutable ledger provides a tamper-proof record of registrations and priority dates, and distributed consensus ensures no single actor can falsify or delete a ownership record . Every action (a registration, a transfer of a mark, a license granted) can be timestamped and recorded indelibly – an auditable trail that is golden for legal certainty .

Perhaps most transformative is the advent of smart contracts – self-executing code on the blockchain – which have reached a level of maturity to automate complex legal arrangements. In the context of brand protection, smart contracts enable a platform like BlockMark to automate many processes that used to require manual paperwork or oversight. Licensing agreements for a brand, for example, can be coded as smart contracts that automatically enforce terms: fees are paid to the brand owner’s account on schedule, and the license expires or renews without human intervention . Ownership transfers of a brand (say, in a merger or sale of a business) become near-instantaneous: instead of weeks of filings and lawyer negotiations, a blockchain transfer of the tokenized trademark can confer rights to the new owner immediately, with a verifiable chain of title . These capabilities existed in theory a few years ago, but only now are they trusted and user-friendly enough to implement at scale. The legal tech community has gained experience with smart contracts (for instance, in finance and supply chain), ironing out kinks around reliability and legal recognition. That paves the way for applying them in trademark management with confidence that they will hold up under real-world conditions.

Crucially, blockchain’s credibility in 2025 extends to enforcement integrations – an area critical for brand protection. A blockchain registry of rights is powerful, but even more so when it can trigger real-world enforcement. This is where BlockMark’s vision of partnerships comes in: by linking its blockchain-based registry with domain name registrars, web hosting providers, and online marketplaces, infringements can be stamped out at the source automatically. If an AI monitoring system (as described earlier) flags an infringing domain or an online store selling knock-offs, the system could invoke a smart contract that, for example, instantly requests the registrar to suspend the domain or asks the marketplace to delist the offending product . We are already seeing early moves in this direction elsewhere – for instance, content platforms reacting to DMCA notices algorithmically. The leap in 2025 is that with a secure blockchain registry, these enforcement actions can be trusted and verified (the system knows who truly owns the mark, and the evidence of infringement can be logged immutably) without waiting on lengthy court orders. It’s a bold concept: automated, cross-border trademark enforcement. It certainly would not have been credible in 2018 or 2019, when blockchain’s reputation was still tarnished by scams and volatility. But now, with blockchain embraced by major companies and increasingly accommodated by law (e.g. courts gradually accepting blockchain records as evidence), the idea of an “autonomous” global brand enforcement network no longer sounds like science fiction.

A System Ripe for Disruption – and an Idea Whose Time Has Come

Given these twin trends – AI’s ascent in legal intelligence and blockchain’s coming of age – 2025 emerges as the ideal moment to launch a platform like BlockMark. BlockMark is, at its core, a synthesis of these technologies applied to the long-standing pain points of the trademark world. Its premise is straightforward but ambitious: a globally accessible, one-stop platform where a business can secure and enforce its brand rights instantly. To appreciate why this is so disruptive, consider how it addresses the flaws of the current regime:

• Speed and Simplicity: Instead of waiting months for examiners, a user on BlockMark could enter their brand (even just a URL or name) and let the platform’s AI instantly conduct a clearance search, determine the relevant product classes, and check jurisdictional needs. The AI’s capabilities mean that what used to require a team of lawyers and weeks of correspondence can happen virtually in real-time. By automating the trademark application procedure – from search to filing to publication – BlockMark promises to collapse the lag time dramatically. In a world where business moves at digital speed, this immediacy is not just convenient; it’s increasingly necessary.

• Global Coverage: Under today’s system, “global” trademark protection is a figure of speech – one must apply country by country (or at best, via treaties that bundle some regions) and hire local agents for each. BlockMark’s model flips this, offering a single registration that confers worldwide protection in its network . By using a blockchain ledger as the universal registry, it bypasses the jurisdictional silos that have long plagued trademarks. A brand recorded on BlockMark could be recognized across all participating platforms and partners, creating a de facto global trademark. This approach also sidesteps the tricky discrepancies in national laws by focusing on the fact of first use/registration on the ledger as priority – something a growing number of jurisdictions are likely to acknowledge as proof of rights. The key point is, such a unified registry could not have been realized even a few years ago; it depends on the distributed trust and consensus that only a mature blockchain ecosystem can provide, and on institutions being willing to rely on a non-governmental ledger (which, as discussed, they increasingly are).

• Cost and Accessibility: By automating processes and eliminating redundancy, a platform like BlockMark can drastically lower the cost of brand protection. There are no multiple attorney fees in each country, no repeated filing fees for every jurisdiction, and far less manual labour in monitoring or enforcing rights. BlockMark’s plan, as outlined in its materials, is to use a scalable subscription model – meaning businesses pay a single recurring fee for protection, instead of unpredictable legal bills . This model could make robust trademark protection affordable to startups and small businesses for the first time. Consider that many SMEs today skip trademark registration or only file in one country because of cost; they are then left exposed elsewhere. With a low entry barrier on BlockMark, a local business could secure its brand globally from day one. The timing here is critical: small businesses in 2025 are increasingly born global (thanks to e-commerce) and thus immediately vulnerable to cross-border infringement, but they often lack the resources to protect themselves under the old system. The convergence of tech in BlockMark addresses this gap at the exact moment it’s most needed.

• Automated Enforcement and Deterrence: Possibly the most game-changing aspect is BlockMark’s emphasis on active enforcement, not just registration. By integrating AI monitoring and establishing partnerships with the digital gatekeepers of commerce (domain registrars, search engines, online marketplaces, social media), BlockMark aims to create a kind of self-policing ecosystem for brands . An infringement detected on one of these partner networks could trigger an automatic remedy – a takedown notice, delisting, or even freezing of a domain – executed via smart contract. While this concept must be handled carefully (to avoid false alarms or abuse), the net effect could be a dramatic reduction in counterfeiting and cybersquatting incidents. If “instant enforcement” becomes a reality, it flips the risk calculus: would-be infringers know that misuse of a BlockMark-registered brand might be swiftly shut down, reducing the incentive to even attempt it. This kind of deterrence simply was not attainable 2–3 years ago; it requires not only advanced AI detection but also a willingness of major internet intermediaries to plug into a blockchain-based enforcement network. Both pieces are falling into place now – AI is up to the task, and major platforms are under pressure (from consumers and regulators) to cooperate more on IP protection. BlockMark is poised to capitalize on that shift.

Of course, a sober view is warranted amid the excitement. BlockMark and platforms like it will face hurdles. Legal systems are by nature deliberate and may be slow to formally recognise a private blockchain registration as conferring rights comparable to a national trademark (at least initially). Established IP offices may respond defensively or with their own innovations. And users will need assurance that this new approach is trustworthy – they will ask, what happens if something goes wrong on the blockchain, or if someone tries to game the AI? These are valid questions, and BlockMark’s proponents wisely avoid claiming that national IP offices or courts are about to disappear overnight. Rather, the case being made is that the center of gravity in brand protection can shift. Routine tasks and first-line protection can be handled more efficiently by an AI+blockchain system, augmenting or relieving the traditional frameworks. IP offices may still play a role (perhaps as backstops or for sovereign recognition), but much of the costly, slow, fragmented process can be streamlined by technology. The disruption here is real: it suggests a future in which securing a global brand is as quick as registering an Internet domain name – and as automated as cybersecurity software blocking an intruder. It’s a fundamental reimagining of trademark protection, but one that feels inevitable given the pain points it addresses.

2025: The Tipping Point for Brand Protection Innovation

All the ingredients have finally come together in 2025 to make BlockMark not only possible but arguably necessary. The frustrations of the status quo – be it months-long backlogs or the multi-million-dollar global trademark budgets of big companies – have reached a peak. At the same time, the enabling technologies have matured right on cue. AI can handle complexity and scale in legal analysis; blockchain provides trust, permanence, and automation in transactions. The two in tandem form a powerful toolkit to rebuild an antiquated system. It’s a toolkit we simply didn’t have in 2022.

And the need for improvement is not academic; it’s vividly illustrated by the world around us. Global losses from counterfeit and pirated goods are projected to exceed $4.2 trillion by 2028 , a staggering figure that underscores how high the stakes are for brand owners and consumers alike. Small businesses continue to suffer the most, as they lack the resources to fight piracy or navigate expensive legal regimes. For them, BlockMark’s promise of lowering the cost of entry to brand protection isn’t just a nice-to-have – it could be transformative, allowing many to protect and monetise their IP where previously they would forgo it.

Ultimately, the argument for BlockMark in 2025 rests on a simple observation: the world has changed, and our tools for protecting brands must change with it. Five years ago, the idea of an AI handling trademark filings or a decentralised registry being widely accepted would have sounded far-fetched. Today, after rapid advances, it sounds eminently reasonable . The conversation is no longer about if such technologies can be used in IP protection, but how soon and who will bring them to market. BlockMark’s launch signals that the future is now.