Microsoft and Ernst and Young (EY) are teaming up to explore the uses of blockchain technology in managing the rights and royalties of companies, a UK-based news business The Register report said.

The system, according to the report, offers close to real-time insight into sales transactions and the smart contract architecture is designed to simplify how those owed royalties get paid.

The system is currently designed to serve any company that deals with intellectual property licensing and royalty payments. The gaming industry will be the duo's subject for testing the subject.

Ubisoft, a Microsoft game publishing partner, will test the system. The game partner relies on the Quorum blockchain protocol, Microsoft's Azure cloud infrastructure and supporting technologies. The aim is that the payment tech will make contracts and royalties easier to manage.

The duo claims that the said blockchain technology will "enable increased trust and transparency between industry players, significantly reduce operational inefficiencies in the rights and royalties management process, and eliminate the need for costly manual reconciliation and partner reviews."

With smart contract tied to this system, the report said, quoting Paul Brody, the EY global innovation leader for blockchain, said, "The hope is that small payments that might have taken 180 days to distribute through existing mechanisms could happen immediately, with enough visibility into the calculations to satisfy payees that they're getting the appropriate amount."