Imagine a world where people can communicate with one another, live, work, and shop from the comfort of their couches in the real world. This is called Metaverse.
It wasn't until Facebook changed its corporate name to Meta in October 2021 that the phrase "Metaverse". At that time, the business disclosed plans to invest $10 billion in technology over the following year in order to realize its metaverse goal.
The metaverse is the next step in the development of the internet. It will manifest itself in a variety of ways, such as in gaming, online forums, and professional settings where participants interact with a digital replica or avatars.
PATENTS CONSIDERATIONS AND METAVERSE
With all of these Metaverse-related advances, there is more ambiguity than ever about how intellectual property (IP) owners may make sure their assets are safeguarded when the physical and virtual worlds merge, particularly with regard to patents and AI-generated ideas.
Under the U.S. Patent Act, 35 U.S.C. §§ 1 et seq., a patent grants a patent holder the exclusive right to exclude others from making, using, importing, and selling a patented invention for a limited period of time. Many patented inventions concern cryptocurrencies and blockchain, AR/VR, and other technologies prevalent in the Metaverse.
With respect to patents focused on AI technology, infringements have also arisen for AI-created inventions. Given the present legal climate surrounding patents in the Metaverse, particularly for stories relating to artificial intelligence (AI), patent owners should modify their strategy for patent protection and enforcement.
IPR CHALLENGES IN METAVERSE
Everything in this world does not exist without challenges. There are so many challenges in Metaverse too.
In order to provide users with a Metaverse experience, goods and services companies must either hire companies to create such virtual reality experiences or develop this technology themselves.
Combining goods and services with virtual reality in this way to provide users with a real-life experience raises intellectual property concerns. Who owns the intellectual property of the digital assets created? Who owns the rights to the original content enhanced by the power of virtual reality?
Identifying and locating infringers in the metaverse could be more challenging, and more advanced investigation methods will be important. This risk applies to all categories of IP assets in the metaverse. For example, the sale of copyrighted NFT artwork in the metaverse may consist of both authentic and fake NFT artwork, and there may be risks of trademark infringement in the buying and selling of items in the virtual marketplace.
Issues of patent infringement may also arise as the technology development process may infringe patents related to the Metaverse, and issues of misappropriation of trade secrets may arise in virtual conference rooms where sensitive information is discussed.
FUTURE OF METAVERSE PATENTS
It is challenging to predict possibilities that will be available to businesses given all that is happening in the Metaverse so quickly. Since there are many patents that are already in existence, as well as many that have recently been granted patents, as well as many more that can still be anticipated to be filed in the future, and all of this in a relatively limited technological context, it is still challenging to determine the extent of the patent density.
What is certain is that more patents will be issued relating to hardware and software components of the Metaverse. As a result, the patent landscape can become increasingly complex and feature-lost, further increasing the problems associated with allegations of infringement.
If in the future company wants to survive in the big share of the market, it is important for them to enter the Metaverse. They should come up with more and more innovative things, they should start acquiring licenses or filing patents themselves for their innovations.
There are many companies who had already grabbed this opportunity and making profits like Facebook, Samsung Electronics, Adobe, and many more. These companies had already filed patents for virtual and augmented reality, 3D projections, machine learning, e-commerce, etc.
Metaverse should be adopted by companies today only rather than losing this opportunity. It would be really exciting how the world of Metaverse and intellectual property will fit together.
