Licensed NFT vs. IP Law

If you think you can create NFTs freely without any Intellectual Property Infringement you may want to rethink again. Current news about Nike filing a lawsuit against StockX drops the audience's jaw and opens a new door to what NFT means for the big branding corporations. 

TL;DR

Licensed NFT is Intellectual Property Rights in NFT. Should we still use Intellectual Property Rights to protect our ideas or there is more than just protecting your own intellectual property.

Intellectual Property Rights

The idea of Intellectual Property was developed in the 17th and 18th centuries to encourage the creation of a wide variety of intellectual goods. However, Intellectual Property Rights has become an Intellectual Monopoly to give creators a way to squeeze competitors. 

Slow Innovation

Intellectual Property Rights slow the process of innovation. There are 5 steps to reach innovation. Explore, Define, Imitate, Redefine, and Breakthrough.

Explore

At this initial stage, you are exploring your likes and dislikes. You are trying everything you can to find a place to fit you. Spending more time to explore will help you to build up a foundation on what you want to do and how you want to achieve that end goal.

Define

This stage is to start to define your favorite styles from existing works. You will pick what you like the most and what you like the least. 

Imitate

It is a stage to copy others’ work. You want to learn the process and put things together. You imitate others to see how well you can do and reach exactly the result as the other did. 

Redefine

Once you are familiar with the process, it is time to create your own styles with what you have learned in previous stages.

Breakthrough

In this stage, you break your own rules and start freely expressing yourself. There is no limit to you and you freely create whatever you are able to do so.

Missing Step

Intellectual Property Rights are killing the 3rd stage and pushing you to jump into the 4th stage. It eliminates many potential to grow and become their own styles. Many others are stopping at the 2nd stage and struggling from now on.

Big Brands Lawsuits

Lawsuits are their favorite when it comes to Intellectual Property Rights. Big brands got money and time to crush many small players. They rather focus on eliminating potential competitors than developing new ideas because they can profit from their already designed products.

In Conclusion

If you think Web3 can change big brandings and corporations, you may want to think twice. There will always be a conflict between existing practices and new practices.