Written by Helen, Analyst, Footprint (helen@footprint.network)
Written by Helen, Analyst, Footprint (helen@footprint.network)
Date: November 3, 2021Footprint Analytics
Source of data information:
About the Metaverse
The concept of "Metaverse" has been gaining popularity recently. According to Footprint Morning Post, on October 29, Facebook changed its company name to "META"; on October 20, Metaverse platform Cryptovoxels now supports Facebook account login.
Metaverse is translated from the English word metaverse, which is a contraction of meta + universe. It first appeared in the 1992 novel "Snow Crash" by the famous American science fiction writer Neal Stephenson (Neal Stephenson).
At present, it is relatively recognized that the closest to the metaverse is the game built in "Ready Player One (Ready Player One)" directed by Spielberg released in 2018-Oasis.
Well-known projects on the metaverse track include Roblox (launched in the US in March 2021), Axie Infinity, Decentraland, Somnium Space, Sandbox, Cryptovoxels, etc.
Since the beginning of this year, major domestic institutions have been gearing up for Metaverse, and have taken actions in the field of intellectual property registration, such as:
On September 3, Tencent began to apply for the registration of trademarks such as "Wang Wang Yuan Universe" and "Tianmei Universe", among which the Tianmei "ZPLAN" project was led by Yao Xiaoguang, vice president of Tencent;
Code Qiankun, invested by ByteDance, officially launched the metaverse game "Restart World" at the end of September, competing with the metaverse game "Robles" represented by Tencent;
On October 12, Nanpai Sanshu Company, the author of "Tomb Raiders Notes", applied for the trademarks of "Rooting Pen Yuan Universe" and "Nan Pai Yuan Universe";
On October 15th, Sotheby's will launch the metaverse area to auction 53 NFT artworks;
At the same time, Metaverse-related projects have also gained investment favor this year, such as:
On September 30, Metaverse project Bloktopia completed a $4.2 million private round of financing;
On October 9, Metaverse chain game Cradles received USD 1.2 million in seed round financing;
On October 13, DeHorizon, the GameFi metaverse project, completed $8.5 million in financing;
On October 22, Meta4 Fund launched a fund focusing on investing in NFT, which was led by a16z.
This article elaborates on intellectual property disputes in detail, and please refer to the serial for other legal issues.
Civil cases of infringement of intellectual property rights can be mainly divided into three types: copyright cases, trademark rights cases, and unfair competition cases. Copyright infringement cases account for about 85% of all intellectual property cases involving games. Here we take copyright cases as an example for analysis. Common copyright infringement cases include the following categories:
In the metaverse, if it is similar to the future development direction of Meta, its code may not be completely open source, so there is a risk of cracking and copying the source code infringement. If the source code is completely open, there is no infringement of cracking or copying the source code.
The author envisages the case of metaverse games. At that time, there will be many platforms similar to "Roblox", which allow players to release small games for everyone to play. One day, Zhang San uploaded a "playing mahjong" small game for everyone to play, and gained players in the virtual world. However, it turned out that the mini-game released by Zhang San was not created by himself, nor was it approved by the original creator of the game, so Zhang San was suspected of infringing on the right to disseminate information about the game's works on the Internet.
The author imagines the portrait infringement situation of the Metaverse game. The portrait of a certain star/celebrity is used by Zhang San to make an NFT image, which leads to the infringement of the star/celebrity's portrait right.
Taking the Metaverse as an example, a game platform designed a game based on the story of "Yi Tian Tu Long Ji", allowing players in the virtual world to become characters in the story. Then this game platform may have infringed on the adaptation rights of the author of "Yi Tian Tu Long Ji".
On November 2, Baidu Online Network Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. is applying for the registration of the "metaapp" trademark. The international classification involves website services and scientific instruments.
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Data source: Footprint Analytics - Funding data for GameFi and Metaverse (since January 2021)
Legal Issues in the Metaverse
The fields where the metaverse is most applicable are online games, metaverse-like industries similar to online games, and related technical support industries.
The author investigated the common legal compliance issues in the field of existing online games, and summarized the following six legal issues that may be involved in games in the Metaverse field: Intellectual property disputes, data protection and privacy, issues of proof, dispute jurisdiction issues, and NFT laws Nature analysis, metaverse-related criminal offenses, etc.
Registration of Intellectual Property
Whenever a brand-new field appears, the first thing for businesses in the industry is to register trademarks, especially top players. Once they decide to lay out this market, they must not let others rush to register; if other patents are involved, such as invention patents, For utility model patents, design patents, and computer software copyrights, especially those that are easy to be imitated, merchants will register as soon as possible. Several major manufacturers in my country have initiated the registration of related trademarks of Yuan Universe one after another, reflecting their keen sense of law.
The registration of intellectual property rights is the responsibility of the national intellectual property department established by each government, and the State Intellectual Property Office is responsible for our country. The applicant can be a natural person, an enterprise legal person, an undertaking legal person, or a social organization legal person.
However, in Wyoming, USA, the law recognizes the legal status of centralized autonomous organizations and recognizes that limited liability companies can be transformed into DAOs. Therefore, DAO organizations can legally and directly own intellectual property rights as applicants for intellectual property rights.
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2. Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights
Cracking and copying the source code infringement is the infringement of the computer software copyright of the game work. For example, the game company’s management of data such as software codes is not standardized, resulting in the source code being copied by employees, and similar infringing game products are produced in a short period of time. For similar cases, please refer to (2013) Erzhong Minchu Zi No. 09903 "Wrath of the Dragon" game infringement of the copyright of "Sword of the King".On October 30, CoinDesk published an analysis article "Facebook Steals Encryption Ideas Again with Its Absurd Rename", in which the author expresses his opinionThe Facebook Metaverse has little to do with the blockchain industry's original metaverse vision
The chief technology officer of Oculus, Meta's head-mounted VR equipment company, also publicly stated that Meta may not be fully open to the encrypted world.
The website publishes the game without authorization
That is, the game website releases game software such as mini games without permission, which infringes the right of information network dissemination of works. Website operators often file a defense as a platform service provider. In such cases, the court generally needs to find out the game uploader in order to determine whether the game website is a direct infringer and review whether it has fulfilled its reasonable duty of care.
Infringement of elements in the game
That is, without the permission of the relevant obligee, the use of cartoon character images, pictures or other elements that others own the copyright in the game. In addition, in practice, there are often cases where individuals sue games for infringement of portrait rights, such as celebrity portraits being used as game characters, etc., such as (2016) Beijing 0108 Minchu No. 5764 and No. 6799 Deng Chao and Chen He were infringed by a game case.
The game infringes the right to adapt the work
That is, the game is adapted based on the characters and plots of other novels, film and television works, etc., and the adaptation right of the author of the original work is infringed. In such cases, the plaintiff usually increases the grounds for suing unfair competition, such as (2014) Haimin (Zhi) Chuzi No. 26654 in copyright infringement and unfair competition disputes, the defendant adapted Jin Yong’s novels to make game products, which infringed many copyright holders. The right to adapt the work.
Mutual complaints of copyright infringement between game companies
In metaverse games, especially in the case of open source code, different platforms may imitate and refer to each other, which may cause disputes between platforms. Therefore, this will affect the determination of some commercial platforms to open source code. l
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3. Conclusion
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