INTA Leads Metaverse Discussion at the China Trademark Festival

Participating in the 13th China Trademark Festival in Dongguan, China, last month, INTA hosted a well-attended session titled Unlocking Trademarks in the Metaverse. The one-hour session was attended by more than 70 participants, including scholars, government officials, business leaders, and law firms.

INTA President Jomarie Fredericks, who joined remotely, reaffirmed the Association’s thought leadership on emerging issues including the metaverse, a critical topic for those seeking to define and enforce rights in these new and evolving spaces. Sharing the Association’s global objectives around these new technologies, Ms. Fredericks took the opportunity to introduce two of INTA’s most recent white papers—Non-Fungible Tokens and Trademarks in the Metaverse—as some of the first published works on emerging technologies affecting brand owners and professionals in China and around the globe.

Ms. Fredericks commended China for highlighting the in-depth integration of digital technology with economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological progress. “China’s transition from manufacturing hub to tech hotbed has largely been driven by effective government policies,” she said. “Advances in IP laws, including the China Trademark Law, are helping more Chinese brands to develop into world-class brands. These positive legislative changes are creating a more favorable domestic market for foreign brands looking to expand into China.”

INTA Board Member Hu Gang (CCPIT, China) provided a deeper dive into INTA’s white paper, Trademarks in the Metaverse, noting, “the challenges lie in how use of a trademark in the metaverse may align or conflict with the local legal standards for the physical world.” There is more to be uncovered regarding the norms of trademark use across both borders and metaverse platforms, as the upcoming decentralization of the Internet will make these traditional legal concepts of habitual residence, domicile, place of business of the parties, or real estate property location based on geographical or territorial terms less meaningful.

Calling for a greater harmonization on the classification of trademarks for metaverse activity and digital assets, Amanda Yang (Rouse, China), chair of INTA’s Trademark Office Practices Committee, China Subcommittee, noted that the current approach of the European Union Intellectual Property Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office of establishing Classes 9, 35, and 41 as the primary Nice Classes to protect virtual goods/services should be taken into account when crafting filing strategies.

Session moderator Wency Yu (Anjie Broad, China) closed the session by stressing that the metaverse poses greater challenges for successful counterfeit detection and trademark enforcement, and may affect the daily practice of trademark prosecution and enforcement actions.

INTA’s China Representative Office, based in Beijing, represents the Association’s members in China. Working in collaboration with staff at INTA’s headquarters in New York City, New York, USA, the China Representative Office leads the Association’s policy, membership, marketing, and communications initiatives in this jurisdiction. To learn more about INTA’s activities in China, please contact INTA Chief Representative Monica Su.       

Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of this article, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest.

Topics China