Trademarks’ License Agreement Based on a Smart Contract

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the review of the feasibility and advisability of using smart contracts based on blockchain technologies for the legal regulation of relations to provide the exclusive rights to means of individualization (trademarks). Blockchain technology is one of the very promising fields in the area of digitalization of the economy, which continues to be constantly and actively developed. The use of selfexecutable transactions by subjects of civil (commercial) circulation is becoming increasingly relevant. However, it should be noted that law enforcement practice has yet to be formed in this area. The existing civil (commercial) law has recently begun to develop provisions defining the specifics of the circulation of so-called digital assets, which may also include exclusive rights and the results of intellectual activity, including trademark rights. So far, the existing legal regulation regarding the rights to digital assets (tokens) and the introduction of smart contracts into the circulation can hardly be called sufficient. The paper discusses the rationale for the feasibility and advisability of using smart contracts for registration of license agreements regarding the use of trademark rights. As a result of the study and practical proposal, the authors focus attention on the need for an internationally unified approach to using blockchain technologies for fixing the transfer (assignment) of exclusive rights to the results of intellectual activity.