Intellectual property fits badly into the decentralization of Web3 — Lawyers

Intellectual property rights will continue to be a contention area within Web3 and NFTs, but there is no easy fix, the lawyers told Cointelegraph.

Intellectual property (IP) rights will continue to be a growing area of ​​tension within Web3 and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), as IP rights are often based on a single "identifiable entity", while Web3 is more often decentralized.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, David Kappos, partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, said intellectual property is traditionally “owned by one identifiable entity, which makes it necessarily centralized from a legal perspective” .

Kappos suggested that the tension between IP and decentralization has no clear solution, asking "how does a DAO really own the IP of the protocol it's supposed to govern?"

Over the past year, several lawsuits have been filed against NFT projects alleged to violate intellectual property, copyrights and trademarks.

When asked about third parties creating digital artwork or wearables of branded products, Kappos suggested that "an unlicensed implementer in a Web3 environment should refrain from creating a wearable confused to a brand belonging to a third party - the same as in the real world."

For example, digital artist Mason Rothschild is being sued by French luxury group Hermès for creating Metabirkins, an NFT collection inspired by the group's famous Birkin bags.

In August, NFT company Yuga Labs released a new intellectual property rights agreement for its CryptoPunks and Meebit collection, offering all CryptoPunk and Meetbits holders to use their NFTs for commercial or personal use.< /p>

Related: NFTs and Intellectual Property, Explained

Nathanael Lim, co-founder of Web3 media startup Avium, said this is a positive step for users, but the real change is that the market will take more notice of IP rights.< /p>

In August, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) announced a