NFT Creators and IP Protection
The crypto art scene has provided non-fungible tokens (NFT) certificate holders and digital creators an opportunity to collect valuable virtual assets and earn through them. However, this opportunity also poses threats to investors-owners and creators alike and a huge part of it is intellectual property theft.
In view of the issues faced by creators of digital assets, let us talk about their rights to their work and how to protect them.
First off, let us talk about intellectual property (IP). What exactly is it and what can you consider intellectual property? According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), IP refers to anything created by the mind of a person including inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, and commercial names, images, and symbols.
Everything that can be considered an IP is covered by respective laws. There are six types of intellectual properties namely copyright, patents, trademarks, industrial designs, geographical indications, and trade secrets. Digital assets typically fall under copyright including articles, music, paintings, videos, photographs, and drawings.
However, if you are thinking that your idea can be copyrighted, take note that copyright protection only covers the expressions of such ideas. Even your procedure and method of creating this expression are not covered by copyright.
For example, your idea of creating a modern interpretation of a mythological character is not covered by copyright, but your finished work is. In fact, copyright is created the moment the work is created in a tangible form.
In other words, thieves can only steal the finished creation, just like what happened to scientific artist Corbin Rainbolt, who had his art stolen, tokenized, and put up for sale as an NFT by a malicious party.
Given that copyright is created upon the creation of the work and without the necessity for registration or any formal documentation, it may be difficult to prove ownership.
In some cases, copyright owners use embedded digital information as proof of ownership. The problem is this can be manipulated. You can register the work for a copyright with the US Copyright Office.
In light of the shift toward blockchain in the world of digital content creation and ownership, the best way to go is to use Blockchain Intellectual Property (bPI). This is where we come in. To create proofs of copyright ownership, we use the same technology used in the crypto art scene, specifically the
blockchain which is a virtual ledger for keeping transaction records.
This system protects creators and owners of NFTs by creating a reliable and tamper-proof way of showing who owns what and everything in between. The best part is, it creates a way to detect plagiarism, which alerts creators and owners in case of IP theft.
Remember, the protective measures taken in the digital art scene also make it difficult to detect theft and identify culprits. The use of blockchain to do so increases the chances of finding out criminal activities like IP theft, stopping the infringement, and possibly enforcing legal rights over perpetrators.
If you are thinking of protecting your works or your ownership of the works, then get in touch with us today.
