Business Solutions to Commercial IP Problems or Legal Solutions to Business Problems? Why Not Both?
I recently advised a client that his IP dispute with a virtual world was just the type of cutting edge, paradigm busting, sophisticated legal problem that people go to law school to resolve.
Good for litigators. Bad for client.
I'll return with business advice for resolving legal problems with business savvy but pause here to share with you Drinker Biddle's recent parade of horribles on IP challenges facing virtual worlds and their entrepreneurs.
Generating and Protecting Intellectual Property in Virtual Worlds (.pdf)
By: Gary J. Rinkerman, Philip J. Cardinale & Janet Fries
The rapid growth of online “virtual worlds,” or computer-based interactive electronic environments, such as Second Life® and There.com, has created new opportunities for creating custom, virtual content, and for advertising and selling “real world” and virtual products and services. Along with those opportunities come a number of unique and potentially complex legal issues that arise in establishing and enforcing intellectual property rights – including trademark, trade dress, copyright, rights of publicity and other rights – in the context of “virtual realities.” Conversely, owners of such rights need to be cautious in deciding whether to create their own presence in such virtual worlds, especially if the virtual world’s Terms of Use contain restrictions on how IP rights must be allocated or licensed, or how IP disputes must be resolved. Some companies may elect to create a presence in virtual worlds, but others may be “dragged in” to virtual environments by the need to monitor usage and enforce IP rights, since IP usage in these virtual environments can have significant real-world impacts.
The solution to sophisticated commercial/legal problems arising in virtual worlds requires both IP lawyers and business/negotiation advisors to resolve.
H/t to Professor Michael Scott @CopyrightLaw who is a must-follow for lawyers with IP issues on twitter; find him @InternetLaw @PrivacyLaw and @LawProf as well. And don't forget to subscribe to his excellent Singularity Law Blog as well.
