Many of you may know that the owner of Facebook has changed the name of the company, calling it Meta, from Metaverse, which, according to Zuckerberg, is the future of digital communication.
In public opinion, however, there is still a widespread belief that the Metaverse is a hoax, just a little more sophisticated than virtual reality, which can be experienced by children in any console game, with a visor.
As in many other cases, when discussing digital, it is difficult to know whether a novelty will remain relegated to the gaming industry, or become commonplace.
Let us, then, stick to the facts:
– especially in the fields of fashion and art, many multinationals are positioning themselves or have already positioned themselves in the Metaverse;
– all so-called Big Techs are producing or have already produced visors for the Metaverse;
– that NFTs, especially in the art sector, are also beginning to be traded for significant amounts.
The question is, then, especially for companies using e-commerce: can we afford to stay out of it?
The further question, however, is: do we have the inhouse knowledge to enable us to use this new tool?
Obviously, the Firm shall approach the issue by a legal perspective, also because, at the moment, there is neither national nor European legislation on the matter.
And so, it will be crucial to study again and redefine many rights that are common in the analog world, such as copyright, intellectual property, trademark and patent law, privacy and so on.
Different rights and solutions then, tailored for specific needs.
In the world we are used to, the answer would be no, but in the digital context it might be more problematic if we have not extended the registration class also to digital contents or images, as recently suggested by the European Intellectual Property Office.
The Firm remains available for any further clarification.
Giampiero Pino Niccolò Pino
