Who Owns the Metaverse?

Operators in the Metaverse will need to have a meticulous approach to intellectual property, licensing and contracts. Risks in the physical world get amplified in the Metaverse due to the greater amount of data gathered, the immersive experience, the novelty of the ecosystem. Data protection, privacy, cyber risks,  etc will require a sophisticated regulatory response. As with the internet in general and blockchain technology specifically, the borderless nature of the Metaverse will be a challenge to existing authorities, including supranational agencies such as FATF and this may lead to a fragmented regulatory framework as different countries adopt different approaches albeit with some pockets of alignment in certain areas. Urszula McCormack, Partner at King & Wood Mallesonsone, and one of Asia’s leading blockchain and financial regulatory lawyers joined Citi’s Ronit Ghose and Sophia Bantanidis to discuss “Who Owns the Metaverse?”.