IP and Metaverse(S) - an Externally Commissioned Research Report

Abstract

This report investigates potential intellectual property (IP) issues relating to the development of the Metaverse. It identifies common characteristics underpinning the vision of the Metaverse and focuses on those that have the most notable implications for IP. These characteristics, together with current, potential, and proposed technologies, inform the IP issues and challenges at the centre of this report. It addresses the limited discourse on the impact on IP and the necessity and/or desirability of IP reforms, as the Metaverse continues to encompass all the latest technology trends, spark imagination, and push the boundaries of possibilities. The key takeaways are that at the moment, there is no consensus of what the Metaverse specifically entails and whether and in what form we may experience and access it now or in the future. It is therefore difficult to anticipate any specific IP issues and challenges. However, it is possible to predict that a hybrid model (a series of Metaverses with different level of interconnections) is the most viable, alongside several large technological monopolies, dominating the different geographic and cultural regions. Secondly, standards, ethics and regulation will dominate the discourse going forward. Thirdly, The Metaverse is complex matrix of IP products and services and is persistent, infinite, and ever evolving. IP will therefore determine how the Metaverse is created, populated, and experienced, how users can migrate between them, and eventually, leave them. And finally, a definitive IP strategy for the Metaverse is yet to emerge.

Keywords: Metaverse, intellectual property, copyright, patents, trade marks, designs, interoperability, standards