Issues around trademarks, patents and intellectual property need proper legislation to be able to decide on legal disputes in the virtual world, experts told a conference in Dubai.
Metaverse has a dark side and it needs regulation, legislation and execution procedures - such as how to arrest a person in virtual reality
Brig Jassim Al Antali,
Abu Dhabi Police Academy
Companies should ensure their trademarks are protected in the new virtual world and make sure their unique assets are protected in the metaverse, a senior prosecution official said, speaking at the 12th Regional Intellectual Property Crime Conference for the Middle East and North Africa region.
Ali bin Khatam, senior advocate general at Dubai Public Prosecution, said protecting IP in the metaverse "is not an easy issue legally speaking".
“The metaverse raises questions such as who is protecting the trademarks in virtual reality and if companies need to register their trademarks in the metaverse. We must have legislation and solutions to these issues,” he added.
“For now it is easy to counterfeit items in metaverse by copying an existing trademark in real life to metaverse.
“The most difficult situation is if there is a trademark in a certain virtual reality and someone copies it in another virtual reality, we must have legislation and protection for this issue.”
'MetaBirkin' landmark case
A court in New York provided some clarity on the issue earlier this month when luxury brand Hermes International won a lawsuit against the digital artist behind 'MetaBirkin' nonfungible tokens.
In the case — believed to be the first to consider how NFTs should be viewed through the lens of IP law — a Manhattan federal jury decided that Mason Rothschild’s sale of the NFTs violated Hermes’ rights to the “Birkin” trademark, Bloomberg reported.
Physical Birkin bags can range in price from $12,000 to close to $200,000. Rothschild first sold the NFTs for around $450 each but their resale value rocketed to tens of thousands of dollars.
A blockchain expert testified during the trial that Rothschild made around 55.2 Ethereum tokens — worth about $87,700 today.
The nine-person jury awarded Hermes $133,000 in total damages.
Mr bin Khatam said prosecutors have issues with deciding the jurisdiction of a criminal or civil case that happens in the metaverse.
“We don’t know which jurisdiction to use if the crime was in UAE or in another country. This causes legislation void,” he said.
He said collaboration between countries through an international policing body like Interpol would help bring some certainty in being able to decide cases.
Brig Jassim Al Antali, from the Abu Dhabi Police Academy, said the growing use of the metaverse means there's a need for proper legal mechanisms to resolve issues that may arise.
“Metaverse has a dark side and it needs regulation, legislation and execution procedures, such as how to arrest a person in virtual reality, as we don’t know where the person is in the case of a dispute," said Brig Al Antali.
“We need to have security, legal and judicial mechanisms and train the law enforcement on the combating crimes in virtual reality.”
Counterfeit items recycled
Ahmed Musabih, director general of Dubai Customs, said that protecting the rights of intellectual property is gaining greater importance with the growth of the UAE’s non-oil foreign trade reaching Dh2.2 trillion in 2022 — up more than 17 per cent compared to the previous year.
“Dubai Customs dealt with around 400 intellectual property disputes that involved 15 million counterfeit items, with a street value of Dh110 million,” said Mr Musabih.
Around 173,000 counterfeit items - such as luxury bags, mobile phones and watches - were destroyed and recycled by the authority last year.
The UAE updated its legislation and increased the punishments in 2021 to crack down on counterfeit items.
The fines for IP crimes range between Dh100,000 to Dh1 million - up from the previous range of between Dh5,000 to Dh10,000.
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Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
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Tributes from the UAE's personal finance community
• Sebastien Aguilar, who heads SimplyFI.org, a non-profit community where people learn to invest Bogleheads’ style
“It is thanks to Jack Bogle’s work that this community exists and thanks to his work that many investors now get the full benefits of long term, buy and hold stock market investing.
Compared to the industry, investing using the common sense approach of a Boglehead saves a lot in costs and guarantees higher returns than the average actively managed fund over the long term.
From a personal perspective, learning how to invest using Bogle’s approach was a turning point in my life. I quickly realised there was no point chasing returns and paying expensive advisers or platforms. Once money is taken care off, you can work on what truly matters, such as family, relationships or other projects. I owe Jack Bogle for that.”
• Sam Instone, director of financial advisory firm AES International
"Thought to have saved investors over a trillion dollars, Jack Bogle’s ideas truly changed the way the world invests. Shaped by his own personal experiences, his philosophy and basic rules for investors challenged the status quo of a self-interested global industry and eventually prevailed. Loathed by many big companies and commission-driven salespeople, he has transformed the way well-informed investors and professional advisers make decisions."
• Demos Kyprianou, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"Jack Bogle for me was a rebel, a revolutionary who changed the industry and gave the little guy like me, a chance. He was also a mentor who inspired me to take the leap and take control of my own finances."
• Steve Cronin, founder of DeadSimpleSaving.com
"Obsessed with reducing fees, Jack Bogle structured Vanguard to be owned by its clients – that way the priority would be fee minimisation for clients rather than profit maximisation for the company.
His real gift to us has been the ability to invest in the stock market (buy and hold for the long term) rather than be forced to speculate (try to make profits in the shorter term) or even worse have others speculate on our behalf.
Bogle has given countless investors the ability to get on with their life while growing their wealth in the background as fast as possible. The Financial Independence movement would barely exist without this."
• Zach Holz, who blogs about financial independence at The Happiest Teacher
"Jack Bogle was one of the greatest forces for wealth democratisation the world has ever seen. He allowed people a way to be free from the parasitical "financial advisers" whose only real concern are the fat fees they get from selling you over-complicated "products" that have caused millions of people all around the world real harm.”
• Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"In an industry that’s synonymous with greed, Jack Bogle was a lone wolf, swimming against the tide. When others were incentivised to enrich themselves, he stood by the ‘fiduciary’ standard – something that is badly needed in the financial industry of the UAE."
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