“Danger, danger, Will Robinson!” That was the warning of the guardian robot in the ’60s television show, “Lost in Space.” Intellectual property lawyers are giving similar warnings when it comes to protecting intellectual property assets in the metaverse. The lines between fair use and infringement are being drawn by the courts now. See Judge Jed Rakoff’s memorandum in Hermès International v. Rothchild, Case No. 22-cv-384 (May 18, 2022), involving NFTs (non-fungible tokens) sold in the virtual world, which is discussed below.

The metaverse in its most narrow sense is used to describe a network of 3-D virtual worlds where humans can socialize, learn, interact, experience and conduct business. Sometimes it is described as Web 3.0 because it is a virtual reality version of the internet. Sometimes it is used to capture other new technologies, such as NFTs and blockchain. Lawyers need to learn more about the metaverse and protect our clients’ assets.