The Metaverse is a 3D virtual world network, which can be understood as an extension of the current world. It is a virtual world born out of the real world, parallel to it, and interacting with it. People can live in the Metaverse through virtual images and have a complete economic and social system. This virtual space has taken the world by storm and has caused many intellectual property related issues.
Metaverse vs Law
In 2021, the whole world has fallen into the frenzy of the metaverse. It is no exaggeration to say that it is a frenzy.
In March 2021, Roblox, an American virtual game platform company, was highly praised by the capital market as soon as it went public due to its remarkable metaverse characteristics.
In October, after the chip giant Nvidia launched Omniverse, a virtual platform capable of carrying the metaverse vision, its stock price soared, surpassing TSMC to become the semiconductor company with the highest market value in the world. By November, the market value even surpassed Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway The market value of the company exceeded 800 billion U.S. dollars.
In the same month, Facebook directly announced that it changed its name to Meta, calling itself the "meta" of the Metaverse, and fully transferred to the Metaverse track.
Under such a hot global barbecue, China’s technology giants are not to be outdone. Tencent first participated in the financing of Roblox; in August, ByteDance acquired VR company PICO; NetEase claimed to have completed the technology and planning of Metaverse; Baidu A virtual social APP "Xi Rang" was launched.
Metaverse itself is not a technology, but integrates 5G, 6G, artificial intelligence, big data and other extended reality technologies including VR and AR, digital twin technology that can mirror the real world into the virtual world, and Use the blockchain to build the technology of the economic system and so on. Metaverse cannot be simply equated with video games, nor can it be simply equated with the virtual world. Its characteristics of creative play and open exploration determine that it is an extension of the current real world. Parallel and interact with the real world. People can live in the Metaverse through avatars, hold meetings, attend weddings and funerals, and various entertainments. Like the real world, people in the virtual world wear clothes, shoes, watches, perfumes, and cars.
This is bound to extend the relevant protection of the law to this brand new world.
We all know that technology always moves too fast and the law always lags behind. The revised Civil Code has just made relevant regulations on the protection of data and network virtual property in 2021. Although from the perspective of patents, the technologies involved in the Metaverse technology system can all be protected objects of invention patents under the Chinese Patent Law, things are not that simple.
China's new "Patent Law" officially implemented on June 1, 2022 has just recognized the protection of partial appearance, and has further improved the protection practice of the graphical user interface (GUI). The new object of appearance design is on the agenda.
Metaverse vs GUI Design
As the basis of the metaverse, let's first understand the global protection of GUI designs.
GUI design is an early prototype of digital appearance design. The rapid development of the digital age has far exceeded the speed of enacting and revising laws. Now the GUI under the protection framework of the patent law must be inseparable from the display device and must be included in hardware devices such as computer screens, monitors or other panels. The regulations have already suffered a strong impact from the Metaverse.
Projection, holography, virtual and augmented reality PHVAR, these emerging designs are completely unable to be protected in the current legal system. As for NFT, which anyone can create at will anytime, anywhere, it also creates space for the plagiarism and duplication of the appearance of physical items by virtual appearance design.
In particular, Chinese applicants need to be reminded that due to the diversity of GUI design protection worldwide and the incompatibility of existing design registration systems with GUI features, for those who wish to use an efficient and effective Enterprises that have no way to protect their GUI designs will face huge challenges.
Countries that protect GUI designs
Currently, globally, Argentina, Brazil, China, Croatia, England and Wales, European Community, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Ukraine and In the United States, GUIs are allowed to be protected as designs, while others such as Chile, Ecuador, and the United Arab Emirates are not allowed to protect GUI designs; while in India, although GUI protection falls within the protection scope of the "Design Act", it has not yet issued a clear guidelines.
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Explanation of GUI functions
Most countries do not need to specify the functionality of the GUI. In Germany, if the functional description of GUI is used to clarify the purpose of GUI, it may limit the scope of protection to a certain extent.
But in other countries, such as China and Japan, the applicant must describe the function of the GUI and submit a brief description. In Russia, the use and advantages of the GUI must be described.