Metaverso e propriedade intelectual: NFTs, direitos autorais e desafios da criptoeconomia no caso Hèrmes vs Rothschild

Abstract

The metaverse, a collective, immersive virtual environment, based on the possibility of interacting with augmented reality by a 3D avatar, that existed until then only in movies and videogames, has extrapolated the world of fiction becoming the new object of desire in the technological market. In this context, companies, seeking to secure their places in this new world, announce their entry into this virtual reality, increasingly encouraging this new digital “gold rush” and giving rise to disputes regarding trademarks and their uses in the digital environment. Thus, there was a disruption of all existing models of exploitation of intellectual property, leading to the inevitable regulatory difficulty observed in the face of digital innovations arising from web 3.0 and the metaverse, which are constantly evolving. In this context, it was necessary to analyze and characterize the existing intellectual property laws in the fungible world. Furthermore, it was perceived how such laws apply to digital assets, especially to Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs), in order to assess which paths can be followed by the courts, and the possibility of destruction in case of violation of intellectual property laws. Thus, starting from the analysis of the mentioned legislation, following with the analysis of the concrete case Hermès v. Rothschild, on the collection of NFTs entitled Metabirkins, it was possible to observe and characterize in a concrete way the paths envisioned by the courts to resolve emerging conflicts, thus seeking a balance between intellectual property rights and freedom of artistic expression in the metaverse.