Trademarks, NFTs, and the Law of the Metaverse

Abstract

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Trademarks, NFTs, and the Law of the Metaverse,
Arizona Law Journal of Emerging Technologies, vol. 6, No. 3 (2023)
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This Article discusses the early encounters of NFTs, trademarks, and the United States legal system. It will examine the areas where NFT creators are getting into or are likely to get into trouble with the law and policy of trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and the related legal causes of action of false endorsement and false designation of origin. United States law is being applied in lawsuits that already are being adjudicated in the real world concerning subject matter that exists only in cyberspace, the pre-cursor to the metaverse. The cases of Yuga Labs v. Ryder Ripps, Nike v. StockX, Hermès Int’l v. Rothschild, and Miramax v. Tarantino are discussed.

Keywords: NFT, non-fungible tokens, tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, trademark, trade dress, dilution, trademark fair use, nominative, classic, parody

JEL Classification: K1, K10, K3, K30, K40, K41