NFTs have use-cases across all industries: from digital identity protection (giving individuals full control over which information to share with whom) to the Internet of Things (as a device authenticator) and the creative sectors (providing liquidity in auctions and in the art, music, fashion, and gaming sectors).
Since virtually anything that can be digitised can be turned into an NFT, NFTs can play a key role in the protection of Intellectual Property (IP) rights by providing inventors, researchers, and creators with a unique digital certificate of IP rights referenced in the distributed ledger.

The proposed European NFT Platform would pilot this use-case. It would explore the potential of NFTs and blockchain to function as an immutable record of ownership claims and allow the verification and authentication of ownership and licenses, the management of IP rights. It should explore how it can be applied to digital rights and copyright transfer, the identification of copyright infringement, and the avoidance of erroneous ownership claims. The project would identify the basic infrastructure, standards and protocols required for deploying and upscaling the use of NFTs and blockchain for IP protection in the EU, and their potential for encouraging innovation.

The proposal is also relevant as European data spaces start to take shape (including in areas such as cultural heritage and media), which aim to promote data flows and data-driven innovation, where IP rights play a key role.