In this brief contribution, I analyze how Blockchain technology can be used to protect and promote Made in Italy, countering phenomena such as counterfeiting and Italian Sounding.
It is necessary to clearly distinguish between two main issues:
- Counterfeiting: the unlawful reproduction of goods that violates intellectual and industrial property rights. It is a criminal offense sanctioned by the criminal code and specific laws (such as Law No. 99 of 2009 and subsequent amendments);
- Italian Sounding: the use of names, images, or colors that evoke Italy for non-Italian products. Unlike counterfeiting, it is often difficult to sanction legally. This phenomenon generates an estimated damage of over 90 billion of euro and diverts market share from authentic businesses.
Challenges and Future
- Limitations: unfortunately, many Italian companies still have limited knowledge of these technologies and require incentives and common standards to digitalize.
- Effectiveness: Blockchain proves effective only if adopted by all actors in the supply chain, enabling real-time data exchange without slowing down production processes.
The use of Blockchain technology within the production supply chain, particularly for Made in Italy, offers several strategic advantages aimed at transforming challenges into competitive opportunities.
Key Benefits
Traceability and Transparency
- Full monitoring: enables the identification of benefits in terms of product traceability throughout the entire supply chain.
- Certification of origin: allows certification of product provenance to consumers, ensuring quality and authenticity.
- Real-time data access: each actor in the supply chain can immediately access information on origin and quality, promoting near real-time data exchange compatible with business logistics.
- Consumer engagement: through a simple QR code, the final consumer can verify the entire journey of the purchased product and compliance with certifications.
Combating Illicit Activities
- Counterfeit prevention: the technology acts as a tool to combat the unlawful reproduction of goods and falsification of origin-related data.
- Security and authenticity: it is used to guarantee the authenticity and security of all production steps, whether involving data, documents, or physical products.
Sustainability and Ethical Value
- Social and environmental assurance: Blockchain provides a guarantee of the social and environmental sustainability of production processes.
- Ethical impact: it enables transparency regarding health, safety, and labor ethics for the end consumer.
Efficiency and Collaboration
- Bureaucratic simplification: simplifies interactions between companies and certification bodies for the sharing of documents and data.
- Ecosystem approach: promotes the creation of “control panels” or dashboards where all actors (from growers to producers) can input and validate data, improving system-wide synergy.
- Incentives: transparency allows the most virtuous actors in the supply chain to be economically rewarded through the preference of informed consumers.
Examples of specific sector applications
- Textile sector: used to manage the “fragmented” and complex structure of various production steps.
- Agri-food sector: implemented to trace raw materials and perishable goods, ensuring hygienic and sanitary safety.
- Pharmaceutical sector: applied to certify the integrity of life-saving medicines.
The use of Blockchain offers significant advantages in the legal protection of Made in Italy, primarily by strengthening evidentiary certainty and distinguishing between different types of illicit activities.
Key legal advantages include:
1. Combating Counterfeiting and Proof of Origin
Blockchain addresses security needs and helps mitigate the phenomenon of counterfeiting.
- Certification of origin: the technology enables certification of the provenance of goods, countering falsification of origin-related data. This is crucial as the attribution of national origin is strictly regulated and violations are sanctioned under criminal law.
- Trademark integrity: it helps safeguard industrial property (trademarks, patents, designs) against counterfeiting and falsification conduct as provided for by the “Industrial Property Code”.
- Immutable data: once entered into the system, data remains permanently accessible in a transparent manner, creating an unalterable historical record useful in litigation.
2. Differentiation between Counterfeiting and Italian Sounding
It is important to highlight how Blockchain helps manage two legally very different issues:
- Counterfeiting: concerns unlawful acts involving the violation of registered trademarks and designations of origin. It is legally identifiable and sanctionable under criminal law (e.g., Articles 473, 474, and 517-quater);
- Italian Sounding: consists of the use of images or names that evoke Italy without violating specific trademarks. Unlike counterfeiting, this phenomenon is often difficult to sanction legally. Blockchain protects businesses by providing consumers with proof of authenticity that “evocative” products cannot offer.
3. Transparency and Accountability
- Label validation: enables the creation of “smart labels” with validated information, reducing the lack of traceability, which is one of the main causes of counterfeiting.
- Identification of responsible parties: each actor in the supply chain records their activities on the platform through a unique account. In the event of irregularities (e.g., sanitary issues), it becomes easier to legally identify the point in the chain where the error occurred.
4. Regulatory Compliance and European Standards
- Market surveillance: the use of Blockchain fits within the framework of European product safety and market surveillance regulations, which underwent a fundamental shift with the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety (GPSR - General Product Safety Regulation), applicable from December 13, 2024.
At the same time, the European Commission is working on updating market surveillance rules (RVM), with a revision expected in 2026 aimed at strengthening controls on imported products. - Labeling obligations: supports companies in complying with rules requiring the indication of origin on labels, as provided for by Law No. 12/2019.