On January 14, 2022 Hermès International SA (Hermès) lodged a complaint in the New York Federal Court against California artist Mason Rothchild (Rothchild) for the use of its BIRKIN bag name and design. Rothschild coined his NFT works “MetaBirkins”. Hermès complaint asserts that MetaBirkins infringe upon and dilutes its registered BIRKIN bag design and is “likely to cause consumer confusion and mistake in the minds of the public”.
On May 13, 2022 the Singapore High Court granted an injunction to stop a potential sale and ownership transfer of a non-fungible token (NFT). This represents the first ever case in Asia for a purely commercial dispute – to protect an NFT. The NFT in dispute is the rare Bored Ape Yatch Club (BAYC) NFT which boast celebrities and athletes among its owners such as Snoop Dog, Justin Bieber, Mark Cuban, Eminem, Post Malone, Steph Curry, Tom Brady and Serena Williams.
These are but a flurry of legal cases initiated worldwide to define the next frontier of intellectual property.
The Metaverse
Briefly, the creation of the term “metaverse” is usually attributed to Neal Stephenson, who may have used it for the first time in his science fiction novel Snow Crash, it is a portmanteau of the words “meta” and “universe”. This is the metaverse, a universe that is beyond something. That something is the non-digital world, the beyond is digital. Kind of like the virtual space in TRON or the Matrix franchise, for those SciFi enthusiast.
In this metaverse, you can imagine digital space replacing physical space (so they say), an ecosystem where you can buy and own real estate, vanity products, fashion and even food! All digital of course (for now). You are essentially projecting your consciousness into the digital world in a more tangible manner. It goes without saying that the rise of virtual realtiry (VR), augmental reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) assist in this projection of consciousness. Needless to say, we are entering the domain of Web 3.0.
NFT
By now, I’m sure you are familiar with this term. Therefore, I won’t regurgitate points about NFT’s like some talking head. Instead, I write briefly about its relation or rather utility in the metaverse.
NFT’s are most widely used, particularly in digital art and collectable objects to authenticate digital ownership of any asset linked to a blockchain. It can be sold and traded in virtual worlds like the Metaverse. It goes without saying that NFTs have opened up a new avenue for the monetization of creative intellectual property.
In my humble opinion, this forms a natural evolutionary growth of web 3.0 and the metaverse. This begs the question is what is valuable? Unlike the physical world, assets created purely in digital form can be reproduce in perfect form endlessly, we often look at the substance not the uniqueness. Physical products have uniqueness and hence ownership and value because it was made by someone and most reproduction of something unique doesn’t come off quite right. Just look at the various copies of BIRKINS in any flea market, it is a shame of a reproduction. Therefore, NFT’s and the environment in the metaverse breaths life into what can be valuable in the virtual space. By attaching a unique identity to a digital asset, one can say that their work is valuable even though it can be reproduced perfectly.
In all honesty, the jury is still out on the actual value of concepts like NFTs. You can have the first minted version of the nyancat but then that’s where the value ends. It is unique in a sense but you can source a perfect copy of this nyancat to use personally.
Perhaps the concept of NFTs is the progenitor of something more impactful or useful for what is to come?
What does the future hold?
The growth of these realities that are approximations to the metaverse, in these last two years, have been driven by the pandemic. If physical spaces were limited, virtual spaces benefited.
Like many instances of NFT integration in businesses that deal in tangible goods, we can expect wilder and wilder instances of new technologies upending traditional business and legal frameworks.
We are without a doubt in new territory, to speculate what might happen would be far too presumptuous. Perhaps with the new business and legal challenges we may chart a path to better define this avant garde landscape.
I will keep a close eye on the latest developments and perhaps write a guide on the landscape of web 3.0, all of its approximations and the impact in our legal and business world.
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