The Global Intellectual Property Europe Exchange to discuss NFTs and Metaverse
The Global Intellectual Property (IP) Europe Exchange will be held in Berlin on March 2023. The event will bring together Europe’s leading Heads, Directors, and VPs of Intellectual Property and Brand Protection. The exchange aims to explore new ideas and trends in the IP field and discuss patent and trademark governance and treatment.
Big Brands also Joining the Event
The event features participation from companies like Google, Coca-Cola, Uber, and many others. Among the key subjects, the event will highlight new opportunities and challenges arising from technologies like Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and the Metaverse. Senior IP Director at NXP Semiconductors stated:
“The Global IP Exchange is an excellent opportunity to share and reflect on experiences and concerns as well as legal evolution and prospects relevant to the IP world. Due to the attendance of not only various seasoned IP professionals but also advisers and service providers, this event is a real source for global IP and business knowledge with the opportunity to connect with IP colleagues from companies, law firms and vendors.”
The rise of NFT technology has become increasingly relevant when discussing patents, trademarks, copyrights, and intellectual property, both in terms of the challenges and opportunities that the rising technology presents.
NFTs and Intellectual Property Initiatives
Earlier this month, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the United States Copyright Office (USCO) announced a joint study. They requested written input as well as panelists for three roundtables.
The joint study by the two offices is seeking comments regarding the current use cases of NFTs in specific industries, as well as potential future applications, challenges, and opportunities associated with intellectual property associated with NFTs. The three roundtables will take place on January 10, 12, and 18.
Earlier this year, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) also announced that it is working on its NFTs-based anti-product counterfeiting system, which is set to be released in 2023. The NFT-based anti-counterfeit solution developed by the EUIPO allows manufacturers to mint NFTs for their physical products, which can be transferred to the buyers upon sale. The token at hand serves both as proof of authenticity and ownership
The solution currently being developed by the EUIPO will provide a centralized platform for manufacturers to issue NFT certificates. As so, companies would not need to develop their own unique NFT solutions, which has been an emerging trend with some luxury and brand item manufacturers in the past year.
IP Challenges in The NFT Sector
While NFT technology can help fight counterfeits by tracking product ownership and transactions, the industry is currently rampant with fraud and counterfeits of its own kind.
DevianArt, a popular digital arts platform, resorted to implementing a fraud alert system to fight plagiarised works that are minted and sold as NFTs. The tools scours the web to find fake digital art pieces in order to alarm the team of counterfeits.
The OpenSea NFT marketplace has also reported that an astonishing 80% of NFTs issued through its free minting tool were counterfeits of existing artworks, along with fake collections and spam. The NFT giant developed a new system that flags NFTs involved in suspicious transactions to fight this and other issues on the platform.
