Look at your feet. Many of you (Raise hand) Now wearing Nike shoes.For the fiscal year ending May 31, 2021, Nike Report Its annual revenue increased by 19% to US$44.5 billion. But this is here. How about in Metaverse?

Why Nike is interested in Metaverse

For those who are not yet familiar with this concept, the easiest but very incomplete way to imagine Metaverse is to imagine yourself in a real-life video game. Nike entered and provided very cool meta materials.

This is not a joke. Nike attaches great importance to Metaverse.

Patent applications dating back to Metaverse in 2018 show that Nike has been carefully stocking tools that can conduct business in Metaverse. These digital tools will include sneakers, avatars and other forms of virtual brands. Of course, Nike intends to sell you digital products (you will buy them because Nike knows how to make you want them), but the meta plan revolves around the entire digital world.

Is it just Nike becoming Nike? Of course, but if we choose to define it as creating entirely new revenue streams, as it has done throughout history, then it’s good for it. Someone will have Metaverse loot, it could also be Nike.

The rules of Metaverse are new to Nike

Nike needs to prepare for the concept of copying destruction.In this time world, Nike has always been very Litigation Recently it has its intellectual property (IP). However, in Metaverse, replication will go beyond our current concept of what is legal. The value of Nike dollar merchandise will definitely be affected by what the company considers to be pirated and others call it an artist.

In the real world, there has recently been an art project called “Forgery Museum” that has important commercial applications. In short, Brooklyn art group Mschf bought the original Warhol for $20,000 and produced 999 accurate fakes. It was then mixed with the original and sold all 1,000 “possibly real” Warhol at a price of $250 each, for a total of $250,000, of which $230,000 was a profit.

related: Digital becomes physical: Top NFT galleries will be visited in person in 2021

The same thing will happen in Metaverse. Some rare Nike water drops (which we sneaker fans call a new shoe or even a color of the shoe-called “color matching”) will be real, some may be real, and some may be forged intentionally or unintentionally .

Metaverse is a new thing for the court

As for how the court will ultimately handle these meta-festival disputes, Samir Patel, a Miami lawyer and the appointer of the Miami-Dade Cryptocurrency Working Group, recently wrote on Twitter:

Developers who think their invention circumvents the law completely ignored the judge’s lack of understanding of blockchain technology. Judges judge by what they know, not what you know. https://t.co/QDnLihGu9e

-Samir Patel (amSamirPatelLaw) October 26, 2021

I talked to Patel about the reality of the new Metaverse and how the judge realized that the common law precedent would be an obstacle rather than a help in deciding the Metaverse case, and how it would become a quick and harsh discovery. As Patel said:

“Legal principles such as real property rights, violation of wet contracts, and infringement of copyrights of human derivative works will govern the relationship in Metaverse (MV).”

He continued: “Therefore, when Nike wants to participate in MV, whether it is a virtual storefront, avatar equipment, or developing new products specifically for MV, its lawyers need to establish a connection between MV violations or claims. And meat space.”

Few judges (and very few lawyers) have used or even heard that the term “meat space” is a problem in itself. The term refers to our physical world, not cyberspace or virtual environments, such as Metaverse.

So yes, the Metaverse statement needs to be simplified for the judge, at least initially written in such a mundane way, using such traditional language, so that the judge will not lose his way.

Can Nike help establish Metaverse’s legal structure?

Patel saw a real opportunity here. “Nike has the resources to educate judges through trials because they have the ability to pay attorneys’ fees to delay litigation, but other smaller petitioners find it difficult to persuade judges that they own the virtual property that exists in the virtual land registry. Blockchain,” he said.

Patel explained to me that if he buys virtual land in Metaverse, the judge may treat the transaction as a sale of goods rather than a real estate transfer. Since the law does not contain or accept the concept of virtual real estate, the virtual land cannot be recorded in the virtual land registry because the registry is not under the jurisdiction of municipalities or sovereign agencies.

“So, if Nike sells a pair of virtual sneakers, but does not deliver the sneakers to the buyer, then this is a breach of the sneaker sales. But the bargaining value exchange still needs to be clarified and may be recorded in the meat space,” Patel explained.

What this means in practice is a difficult problem for judges. There is no evidence that a contract was signed in Metaverse, such as an oral contract signed by two incarnations. So, how does the judge decide one party in this dispute? This is exactly the same as the oral contract completed in meatspace. If the avatar can prove reliance on oral contracts in Metaverse, as they can do in Meatspace, then there may be evidence to support the plaintiff’s claim.

related: To work for everyone, Metaverse must be decentralized

Metaverse may be the same lawsuit as Meat Space

And there will be many claims.If Nike does not modify its creation in the meat space without its permission, the defendant in the Nike lawsuit is bold Reply Modification is art, not intellectual property theft. Imagine Metaverse. Patel pointed out:

“If artificial intelligence is used to create landscapes or other virtual objects, intellectual property laws will be tested in the MV.”

He added: “That’s because AI derivative works are not protected by US copyright law. So, if I deploy AI in the MV and AI creates some great things, I have zero rights to the derivative works and others can imitate them. This work does not claim copyright for itself. Protecting one’s copyright will be extremely difficult because the MV may be so large, and the infringer may be an entity deployed with artificial intelligence. The judge will use the Meatspace Copyright Law to deal with these issues.”

This leaves us with the only feasible way to change the way judges see and decide cases in Metaverse: by changing our existing laws to adapt to virtual reality. If there is no such change, from the judge’s point of view, everything is meat space, and virtual reality does not exist as a legal reality.

As Patel pointed out, the real legal reality is “Nike will carefully hire proficient lawyers. I mean lawyers who are very proficient in real estate, Uniform Commercial Code, and blockchain technology experts.”

As Metaverse provides a new virtual world, opportunities for creation, sale, purchase, and prosecution, it will be interesting to watch through social, commercial, and legal perspectives. In fact, Nike is ready to create, sell and litigate in this new field, which means you should also be prepared for the reality of Metaverse, which will soon appear on your computer or mobile phone.

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