Nike, the America-based footwear manufacturing brand, is preparing for the Metaverse, as the brand reported its revenue was up 19% to $44.5 billion for the year.
It has been reported that Nike enters and provides very cool meta-stuff, as Nike is very serious about the Metaverse. Patent filings dating way back to the pre-Metaverse universe in 2018 reveal that Nike has seriously been stockpiling the tools with which it can do business in the Metaverse.
However, these digital tools will include sneakers but also avatars, and other forms of virtual branding. Nike intends to sell digital products but the meta-plan revolves around entire digital worlds.
The report said that Nike needs to be prepared for the notion of destruction by duplication. In this temporal world, Nike has been very litigious of late with its intellectual property (IP). Yet, in the Metaverse, duplication will transcend our current conceptions of what’s legal.
Likewise, the value of Nike’s meta-wares will absolutely be affected by what the company would deem to be pirates yet others would call artists. As per reports, some rare Nike drops will be real, some may be real, and some will be either knowingly or unknowingly fake.
Samir Patel, a Miami attorney and an appointee to the Miami-Dade Cryptocurrency Task Force, recently said:
“A judge’s lack of knowledge on blockchain technology is completely missed by devs who think their inventions circumvent the law. Judges judge on what they know, not what you know.”
He added:
“Legal doctrine like real property rights, breach of wet contracts and copyright infringement of human-derived work will govern the relationships in the metaverse (MV). So, when Nike wants to participate in the MV, whether that be with virtual storefronts, gear for avatars, or create new products exclusively for the MV, then its lawyers need to build a nexus between the MV legal violation or claim and meatspace.”
Moreover, Patel sees a real opportunity here.
He said:
“Nike has the resources to educate judges through trial because they can afford to pay their lawyers to drag out litigation, but other smaller petitioners would have a hard time convincing a judge that they own virtual property that exists on a virtual land registry, maintained by a decentralized blockchain.”
He further explained that if he were to buy virtual land in the Metaverse, the judge would probably view the transaction as a sale of goods and not a transfer of the real estate. Because statutory regulations do not contain nor entertain the notion of virtual real estate, this virtual land can’t be recorded in a virtual land registry because that registry is not governed by a municipality or sovereign.
Thus, Patel added:
“So, if Nike were to sell a pair of virtual sneakers, but don’t deliver the sneakers to the buyer, then that is a breach of contract in the sale of sneakers. But the bargained-for exchange of value will still need to be articulated and possibly recorded in meatspace.”
Source: Cointelegraph