What is the Metaverse ?

Imagine a virtual environment where people can communicate with one another, live, work, and shop from the comfort of their couch in the real world. This is Metaverse.

The metaverse is envisioned as the next stage in the evolution of the internet. It will manifest itself in a variety of forms, for instance in gaming, internet communities, and professional settings where participants interact with a digital replica or avatar of themselves.

People use avatars to identify themselves, interact with one another and virtually develop the community in the metaverse. In the metaverse, virtual cash is used to purchase a range of products, like clothing, and even shielding and weapons for video games. Using a headset for virtual reality and controllers, users can also enjoyably and aimlessly traverse the Metaverse.

Metaverse Origins

The bleak future depicted in Snow Crash did not paint the metaverse in a favorable manner. The word "metaverse," which refers to a new breed of virtual reality-based internet, was first used by author Neal Stephenson. In Stephenson's metaverse, technical prowess—represented by the level of sophistication of a user's avatar—was one method to rise in social standing. Access to certain limited areas, which served as a forerunner to the paywalls and registration requirements some websites still employ today, was another sign of prestige.

Another book that contributed to the rise in popularity of the metaverse concept was Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. It was later turned into a Steven Spielberg-directed film. The dystopian sci-fi book from 2011 takes place in the year 2045, where people go to a virtual environment called The Oasis to get away from the issues that plague Earth. Users can grab and interact with objects in the virtual environment utilizing haptic gloves and a virtual reality headset.

What distinguishes the metaverse from the internet?

There are dozens of computers, millions of servers, and other electronic devices connected to the internet. Internet users can engage with websites, communicate with one another, and purchase and trade products and services once they are online. The metaverse enhances the internet rather than competing with it. Through the use of technology like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), social media, and virtual currency, users can navigate a virtual world that mirrors parts of the actual world in the metaverse. In Internet – people browse, In Metaverse – to a certain degree they live in…..

Even nations might expand their influence throughout the metaverse. For instance, Barbados intends to establish a diplomatic embassy in the metaverse, more specifically in the virtual community Decentraland, whereas the majority of nations have a comparatively static presence online. Numerous services that are paving the way for the development of the metaverse have emerged as a result of the internet's expansion.

According to Ben Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies, "In gaming, you see Roblox, Minecraft, and other immersive video games — and even Zoom — foretell what the metaverse is supposed to give. You even have a virtual identity on social media. He now claims that the ultimate form of the metaverse is in dispute.

The same as the internet, will Metaverse be open?

Or

Will it be more of a restricted experience run by a select few powerful corporations?

The major players all desire to move quickly and succeed inside their own environment.

Companies with a Metaverse Vision

Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg claimed in an open letter that his company's investment in the metaverse signified a fundamental shift and was a component of a new vision for the social media behemoth that was intended to "bring the metaverse to life“. Additionally, he asserted that Facebook is a firm that puts the metaverse ahead of Facebook. This is a significant shift since it signals the eventual removal of the requirement for Facebook accounts to access other metaverse services. Facebook has already sold millions of its Oculus VR headsets for using the metaverse, among other non-Facebook products.

In the Meta announcement, Zuckerberg stated that Facebook hopes to hasten the development of the core technologies needed to "bring the metaverse to life," including social platforms and creative tools. Facebook introduced Horizon Worlds, a virtual reality environment that users may explore as an avatar, and tools for developers to construct additional virtual worlds after the Meta news broke in late 2021.

Epic Games

Following a $1 billion round of fundraising in 2021, Epic Games, the company behind the immensely popular online shooter game series Fortnite (which has 350 million users) and the game development tool Unreal Engine, intended to establish a claim in the metaverse. $200 million of that came from Sony Group Corp. In contrast to Facebook, Epic Games intends to create a community where users can communicate with brands and one another without a news feed full of advertisements.

Kenichiro Yoshida, chairman, president, and CEO of Sony Group Corp., said in a statement: "I strongly feel that this aligns with our objective to fill the world with emotion, using the force of creativity and technology.“

Microsoft & Accenture

Microsoft Teams, the software giant's alternative to Zoom for online meetings, is getting the metaverse. Mesh for Microsoft Teams will be available in 2022, according to Microsoft. Users of the new service can participate in shared, collaborative holographic experiences during virtual meetings from different physical locations.

According to Microsoft, Mesh would enable users to create a personalized avatar of themselves and create a virtual presence on any device. In addition to a set of AI-powered tools for avatars, session management, spatial rendering, synchronization across many users, and "holoportation," -  use of the 3D capture technique, users can reconstruct and send high-quality 3D models of individuals in real time.

To develop Mesh-enabled immersive places, Microsoft has already been collaborating with professional services company Accenture. Every year, Accenture hires around 100,000 people, and Mesh aids in the onboarding process. To learn how to establish a digital avatar and access One Accenture Park, a shared virtual environment that is part of the onboarding process, new hires meet on Teams. A central meeting room, a virtual boardroom, and digital monorails that new employees utilize to access other displays are among the futuristic amusement park-like features of the area.

Nonfungible tokens (NFT’s) – The Metaverse Driver

These tokens are Nonfungible, or entirely one-of-a-kind. They function on the blockchain similarly to certificates of ownership. When a digital file (often an image, video, or GIF) is produced, they are produced as well. In other words, a digital certificate of ownership and originality is created using a cryptocurrency, most often Ethereum, and sold or issued to the new owner.

NFTs are helpful since digital materials and artwork are well-known for being simple to duplicate and steal. Although NFTs cannot prevent theft of digital assets, they do offer an impartial, unbiased validation of the owner. If NFTs are ever incorporated into copyright law, they might also be used as proof of misuse of digital products.

While the metaverse has provided new businesses with chances to sell digital items, like Metaverse Properties, established brick and mortar businesses are also becoming involved. For instance, Nike recently bought RTFKT, a firm that uses NFTs, blockchain authentication, and augmented reality to create unique virtual footwear and digital artefacts. The company RTFKT claimed on its website that it was "founded on the metaverse, and this has characterized its vibe to this day.“ In order to assist design and sell virtual sneakers and clothing, Nike submitted seven trademark applications prior to the acquisition. Additionally, Nike and Roblox collaborated on "Nikeland," a virtual environment where Nike fans can play games, interact, and outfit their avatars in clothing.

According to Nick Donarski, CEO of ORE System, an online community of gamers, content producers, and game developers, "NFTs and blockchain lay the foundation for digital ownership." "NFTs will be this vehicle for ownership of one's real-world identity to carry over to the metaverse.“

Applications & Uses Of NFT’s In The Metaverse

Virtual Marketplace

Areas for conversation in VR are already prospering thanks to apps like VRChat, so it is not a tremendous jump to imagine that similar spaces can also act as a fruitful marketplace for NFTs. Sellers can easily offer previews and links to online files or mint assets right in the VR environment.

Art gallery

Aside from a real brick and mortar facility, virtual reality (VR) may be the best platform for seeing art. You get the opportunity to observe it closely from all sides and in great detail. Because the assets are all of one sort (art compositions), the prices are already determined (and cannot be bargained), and the environment is considerably more laid back, this kind of solution varies from a market.

Numerous museums are presently displaying NFT artwork in metaverses enabled by the Ethereum blockchain, such as Cryptovoxels. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the FC Francisco Carolinum Linz, Austria, among other art galleries and museums, are among those that Cryptovoxels is home to, according to The Art Newspaper.

 New frontiers

In the real world, real estate may be a quite lucrative field to work in, and the same might be true in the metaverse. The digital land and territories that are partially or entirely sold for user development instead of real dwellings are what we are referring to.

How close is implementation of metaverse with NFTs?

Only a few businesses have developed practical solutions in this area that use NFTs, and the idea of the metaverse is still relatively new. If you can identify a use case for the combination in your organization and have the means to make it happen, you can be a pioneer. Knowledge of blockchain and NFT minting will also be helpful for progression in this space.

Although the concept of participating in an online virtual world has been for a while, a true metaverse where real-world interactions are feasible is still years away. The majority of people don't have the VR goggles and motion capture gloves to effectively capture their emotion, body language, and voice quality, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates highlighted in his annual year in review blog post. However, according to Gates, most virtual meetings for business will switch from two-dimensional square boxes to the metaverse, a 3D place where participants appear as virtual avatars, over the next two to three years.

‘VR’ vs. ‘AR’ vs. ‘MR’ vs. ‘XR’

The term immersive media, which is used to describe digital content that is delivered to viewers from a first-person perspective and gives the impression that they are actually present within the content rather than viewing it from the outside, is at the summit of the pyramid. This sense of presence serves as the link between VR, AR, MR, and XR.

VR vs. AR

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are the two cornerstones of immersive media (AR). Both terms have been in use for many years; VR first appeared in the late 1980s, and AR soon after in the early 1990s. Where the user feels present is where VR and AR diverge. With virtual reality, the user experiences a fully simulated environment while in augmented reality, the user experiences both real and virtual content simultaneously.

The user must be able to engage with the virtual content naturally and immersive in order to obtain a true VR or AR experience. This sets virtual reality apart from 3D games and films. By contrast, "heads-up displays" (HUDS), which only project data and images onto a user's field of view of the real environment, are not considered to be augmented reality (AR).

Virtual reality (VR) is an immersive, interactive, first-person, simulated world that gives the user a strong sense of presence. A strong sensation of presence in a mixed real and virtual environment is created by augmented reality (AR), which is immersive and interactive virtual content that is physically registered to the real world and experienced in the first person.

XR vs. MR

As hardware and software developers started to create systems that support both virtual and augmented reality, extended reality (XR) was popularised. The term "extended reality" has evolved into a useful catch-all to describe systems and products that target both, as opposed to the awkward terminology "virtual and augmented reality.“

Although it has gained popularity, the term mixed reality (MR), which is simply a synonym for augmented reality, raises certain questions. When Microsoft introduced the HoloLens in 2016, it utilised the word "mixed reality" in its marketing materials, which helped popularise MR and make it interchangeable with AR. 

A new source of confusion is that some businesses are now promoting "smart glasses" as augmented reality or mixed reality, when in reality they are essentially "heads-up displays" that project flat data and images into the user's field of vision. These gadgets have a variety of uses, but when compared to genuine augmented reality headsets like Microsoft's HoloLens and Snap's most recent Spectacles, they create confusion in the market.

Intellectual Property & Metaverse

Since intellectual property rights are a result of human curiosity and intelligence, it is crucial to protect them in new "virtual worlds." Although not ideal at the moment, the legal-regulatory frameworks governing rights in the metaverse are being creatively employed. To ensure that a living regime of intellectual property is formed that effectively goes along with the accelerating pace of technology and science, work needs to be done on existing regulations with modest legal adjustments and new cutting-edge monitoring methods.

Although controlled by actual people within a metaverse, the law regarding the legitimacy of activities taken by virtual characters is still in its infancy and has not yet fully developed. The urge to apply real-world regulations within the metaverse is based on the fact that it feels "real." However, it would be challenging to determine which human rights could be upheld within the Metaverse. For instance, it would be challenging to uphold the right against assault without causing "bodily harm," whereas the right against sexual harassment would be upheld because it does not require physical contact.

In actuality, a lady was sexually attacked in the "Horizon Worlds" Metaverse in 2021, prompting the platform to launch an investigation into the incident. When it comes to intellectual property rights (IPR), which are fundamentally works of human intelligence, their application will inevitably cross the real-virtual divide, necessitating the establishment of procedures for their protection. A contentious issue in the modern period is the infringement of IPR, which includes the protection of trademarks, patents, copyrights, etc. due to the uncertainty surrounding the Metaverse's legal status.

Intellectual Property & Metaverse

Trademarks in Metaverse

A trademark serves as a visual cue to differentiate one product or service from others. A symbol that is legally protected in the actual world should have a similar status in the metaverse. Metaverse is essentially a blessing for businesses that own trademarks because it offers a fruitful environment for inexpensively promoting and marketing trademarks. Allegations of trademark infringement have already been made in several instances in Metaverse.

In the well-known 2008 case of E.S.S Entertainment 2000, Inc. v. Rockstar Videos, Inc, et al., the court ruled that the fictional depiction of the real-life strip club trademark logo within the game of GTA, one of the first Metaverse, will not amount to trademark infringement because it is an exercise of creative freedom protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Other times, though, the improper use of trademarks in the Metaverse is hotly contested. The main point of argument relates to the nature of unauthorized trademark usage, namely whether it is de Minimis, incapable of producing confusion among the public, or not intended to generate revenue.

The court ruled in Tata Sons Limited v. Greenpeace International that the unlicensed use of the petitioner's trademark within a game developed by the defendant to promote environmental causes and criticize the defendant was only a parody and would not constitute trademark infringement. Such situations make one wonder how a trademark would be safeguarded if it were made by an avatar within the metaverse itself.

Patents within Metaverse

Over the past ten years, there have been an increasing number of metaverse-related patent filings. Within Metaverse, patents must be handled in accordance with three verticals: First, patents for the Metaverse technology itself, which may be further broken down into the hardware and software technologies required to create a distinctive and customized Metaverse. Different patent applications are being submitted for augmented reality and virtual reality technology, software applications, etc. because it is not possible to patent the Metaverse as a whole.

Second, what is known as "virtualization of patents"—the usage of already-patentable technologies or devices within Metaverse—could result in their violation. The third gantry, which discusses the patents developed by avatars within the Metaverse, is particularly interesting, as it talks about the patents created by avatars within Metaverse.

Implications of the Metaverse on Medical Patents & healthcare is another hot topic

Copyrights in Metaverse

The software tools used to build the Metaverse are the ones with the most copyrights in relation to it. Copyright claims are also raised individually as such since such virtual worlds are a type of "combinatorial innovations," which include diverse musical, artistic, literary, sound, and dramatic works. Copyright claims are particularly interesting because there is no limit to the amount of works that can be made in the Metaverse.

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), which are essentially tokens that may be virtually exchanged but whose underlying asset does not change, are yet another intriguing method for protecting copyrights as well as a route for infringement. As a result, it is simple to copy or infringe upon NFT without the owner's consent. NFT license agreements, however, can aid creators in preserving their copyrights as NFTs.

Way Forward

54 billion dollars spent on virtual products creates a huge opportunity for IPR petitions and infringement lawsuits. It is difficult to defend intellectual property rights in a world where creativity is unbounded. It will largely depend, on  one hand, on individual governments' willingness to take the initiative, to include pertinent provisions in their IPR laws, such as amending the classes of trademarks and the NICE Agreement of 1957 by WIPO to include specific related provisions, as opposed to relying on simple international norms of a single country. On the other hand, it is necessary to build efficient supervision systems, such as a virtual database of NFTs, a virtual investigator of IPR violation, and future-proofing of current intellectual property rights. IPR regulations must be updated as we enter the Web 3.0 and Globalization 4.0 eras.

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