Unwinding NFTs in the shadow of IP law

Amid the surge of intellectual property (IP) disputes surrounding non‐fungible tokens (NFTs), some scholars have advocated for the application of personal property or sales law to regulate NFT minting and transactions, contending that IP laws unduly hinder the development of the NFT market. This Art...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American business law journal 2024-03, Vol.61 (1), p.31-55
Main Authors: Wang, Runhua, Lee, Jyh‐An, Liu, Jingwen
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Amid the surge of intellectual property (IP) disputes surrounding non‐fungible tokens (NFTs), some scholars have advocated for the application of personal property or sales law to regulate NFT minting and transactions, contending that IP laws unduly hinder the development of the NFT market. This Article counters these proposals and argues that the existing IP system stands as the most suitable regulatory framework for governing the evolving NFT market. Compared to personal property or sales law, IP laws can more effectively address challenges such as tragedies of the commons and anticommons in the NFT market. NFT communities have also developed their own norms and licensing agreements upon existing IP laws to regulate shared resources. Moreover, the IP regimes, with both static and dynamic institutional designs, can effectively balance various policy concerns, such as innovation, fair competition, and consumer protection, which alternative proposals struggle to provide.
ISSN:0002-7766
1744-1714
DOI:10.1111/ablj.12237