Showing posts with label non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Show all posts
Showing posts with label non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Show all posts

Friday, December 9, 2022

NFTs in Copyright; Lexology, December 8, 2022

Traple Konarski Podrecki & Partners - Tomasz Targosz, Lexology ; NFTs in Copyright

"Frequently, whenever some new technology-related trend emerges, papers that attempt to juxtapose it with various fields of intellectual property law abound, according to the principle X and …. law. Often there is very little that is new behind this, and the described legal “issues” are formulated in an artificial way and are not difficult to solve. A text regarding NFTs in copyright could also be classed as a text of this kind, but in this case there are at least a few questions that need to be addressed. Even if NFTs do not have great practical significance, as some people believe, this category will probably not disappear entirely. Therefore it is worth examining the issue of the areas in which copyright law and NFTs might come into contact, and what implications this has (or doesn’t have, which is no less important). 

The simplest way to describe NFTs is information in a blockchain, representing some resource (digital goods). The distinction between an NFT (non-fungible token) and fungible tokens is not so much that they cannot be exchanged (notably, ‘trading’ in NFTs is one of the reasons for which they exist) but that they are unique (no two data chains are alike). This feature means that NFTs bring to the digital world something rare that is known in the physical world. A good example is a genuine work of sculpture of which there is only one. NFTs and copyright converge because the item that can be represented by the token may be an item that qualifies as creative, i.e. is a work as defined in copyright law, although of course this is not essential (for example Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, “converted” into an NFT, sold for almost USD 3 million and is not a work). If an NFT is not linked to a work, it will not be a matter of interest in copyright law. For this reason, we will focus on cases that do involve a work, such as a digital file containing a photograph, video, etc.)."

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Copyright Office and USPTO Announce NFT Study and Roundtables; U.S. Copyright Office, November 22, 2022

U.S. Copyright Office, NewsNet 988; Copyright Office and USPTO Announce NFT Study and Roundtables

"The U.S. Copyright Office and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are publishing a Federal Register notice announcing a U.S. Copyright Office and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) joint study to examine various matters related to intellectual property that arise from the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

In a letter dated June 9, 2022, Senators Patrick Leahy and Thom Tillis requested that the Copyright Office and the USPTO conduct a joint study and address issues related to NFTs and intellectual property rights in consultation with the private sector, drawing from the technological, creative, and academic sectors.

To assist in preparing a report for Congress, the notice seeks written responses from the public to several questions. It also announces that the Copyright Office and USPTO intend to hold virtual public roundtables in January 2023.

For additional information, including instructions for submitting comments and asking to participate in the roundtables, please visit the Copyright Office website. Comments must be received no later than January 9, 2023."