Nihon Keizai Shimbun, November 20th 2022
On the 20th of November, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun
reported that Japan's government will soon start to consider
how laws can be made to protect intellectual property rights in
virtual spaces, or the metaverse.
From 21st of November, the government of Japan set up a
council where experts from the private sector, universities and
other organisations can discuss IP issues.
The metaverse is a virtual space, that exists on the internet,
that users can use to communicate and interact with others using
alter egos. As it is expending in to gaming and business in
general, the ambiguous handling of IP in this space has become
important. Virtual spaces can feature the trade of goods that are
branded or designed like in the real world. The question then is
how trademarks and design rights are applied in such a
situation.
For trademarks it is currently not clear if their power to protect a brand image can be exercised in a metaverse. So far, there have been cases where companies filed for their trademark as a program existing in a virtual space to assert its rights even there.
For designs, issues exist too, as the present law in Japan covers articles and architectural structures, which are tangible object. While matters like a selection screen of a cell phone, which is less physical in nature, can be protected, not everything in a virtual space seems to be covered.
Yet there is a concern that expanding the scope of rights into the
virtual space may put the breaks on creative activities by the
users of a metaverse. The question is then to what extent there
should be free reign for creative activities and to what extent
protection should be expanded.
The newspaper expects that a sub-committee will be set up under
the council to discuss separate issues. Additionally, matters like
portrait right for avatars, problems with sexual harassment, as
well as slander and libel are set to be discussed.
More information can be found here (in Japanese)
https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUA180FB0Y2A111C2000000/
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