Metaverse And Intellectual Property Rights: Navigating Innovation And Protection In A Virtual Economy
- IJLLR Journal
- Aug 30
- 2 min read
Kinjal Jain, SVKM's, NMIMS
INTRODUCTION
Think of logging into a virtual universe and being able to purchase a designer handbag for your avatar (the virtual equivalent of a user, the virtual version being present in the virtual universe), go to a concert by your favourite artist, or even purchase virtual real estate that can cost as much as thousands of dollars. No longer science fiction this is the Metaverse, and slowly it is becoming our new virtual universe.
The Metaverse is transforming the way we connect to each other and conduct business on the internet. Combined with new technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and blockchain, it creates immersive virtual worlds where people can work out of virtual offices, socialize with their friends in virtual worlds, buy and sell digital and physical goods, and create entirely new forms of entertainment. The game platforms originally created as an entertainment medium are now an actual economic frontier where virtual assets are actual value.
But with this new frontier come a new range of pressing questions. With digital objects now having an economic value, the final question now becomes: who do they belong to? If one copies a designer fashion brand's virtual handbag, uses a trademarked emblem as a virtual asset within a game, or copies an NFT artwork, do conventional intellectual property (IP) law come into play? And if they do, how do they get enforced in an borderless, decentralized world that does not come under a single jurisdiction?
The law is behind. Traditional IP laws, like the Indian Trade Marks Act, 1999 and the Copyright Act, 1957, were conceived out of a physical marketplace.. Their current application is being utilized and stretched beyond which was intended when an item can be copied forever or when a consumer can breach rights from any country with protections, all on a decentralized system that is never really in one place.The Metaverse pushes the limits of what we know about ownership, originality, and protection.
Therein the paradox: companies and independent creators invest enormous time, resources, and intellectual capital into their creations, and rightly want to be protected. Conversely, the Metaverse thrives on openness, experimentation and testing, and freedom to create without traditional limitations. The balance must be struck. Excessive restriction risks killing innovation; insufficient protection bequeaths creators, brands, and consumers a digital "Wild West."
