In a Law360 article regarding non-fungible tokens (NFTs), partner Ron Dreben acknowledged that while anyone can “read purported basic explanations about them from various sources, fully understanding them is a real challenge.”
“The challenge we have all faced in this space from the beginning: understanding exactly what is an NFT. What is a token? How does the blockchain work? Why are there different blockchains? What is a digital wallet?"
According to practitioners, a joint study on NFTs launched by the US Patent and Trademark Office and US Copyright Office could also clarify what constitutes infringement in the metaverse. In particular, the Copyright Office could confirm that the “minting and marketing of an NFT that points to copyrightable subject matter without authorization of the copyright owner constitutes copyright infringement,” Ron said.
“Some defendants may try to argue that NFTs do not infringe, because 'they are just code' and not the image [or] video that we all think of as the NFT.”
“The Copyright Office could give its view on this.”