Development Of Fashion Laws In The Metaverse

The Metaverse is the one of the biggest trend of this decade as people say and are predicting that it will change the way we live our life today in the real world into a more immersive virtual world. As we’ve seen in the Pandemic that people are now more connected with the digital world for different day to day activities from communication to entertainment to shopping and even education which will definitely act as a catalyst.

This new exciting world can change the way we play, work, our leisure activities and even our clothes. This new world can offer new possibilities which can be used for building new creative ideas using the block chain and cryptography.

As the world is moving towards the block chain led new universe with the meteoric rise of several crypto-currencies and now NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens) which are truly the foundation of the Metaverse games such as Decentraland , Axie Infinity, Roblox and many more are emerging in the block chain space with companies buying land in them already.

Many big tech companies are also making massive moves from few months in this space as we saw in the case of Facebook which rebranded itself as a Metaverse company after years of development in the Facebook Research Lab & Oculus it came to mainstream and the Fashion & Creative world is also not left behind where big companies and new emerging start-ups are making their mark to take the lead by developing new products and building strong communities going forward.

In the recent developments of NFTs and Metaverse objects, new problems are arising in the physical world especially in Fashion Law as its importance is increasing now more than ever with so many creative people producing new work but are misguided about the fashion laws such as copyrights and trademarks.

Let’s dive into the intersection between Fashion Law and Metaverse to understand the development of this merger:

Meta Birkins Vs. Hermes

French Luxury design house Hermes is taking on Mason Rothschild by sending cease & desist letter for infringement of their Intellectual Property Rights by selling the counterfeit version of their famous Birkin bag in the Metaverse. In the reply, Mason is a proud creator who claims every right over his creation which he called his “plays interpretation of an existing fashion culture landmark”. But this forced the Opensea to remove the one of the best-selling NFT from their platform before any legal action. The Giant Traditional brands are using their power to determine the direction of Fashion Industry.

H&M Metaverse Store

The Mixed Reality Company “CEEK” presented H&M 3D store in their Metaverse named “CEEK City”. In this store, People can buy new collections for their digital avatars by paying in “CEEK Coins” and do a bunch of other things in the virtual city.

This was initially published by all the digital media in which they tagged it as an official store announcement, but now H&M denied all these rumours and shattered the dreams of many. But still this new exciting concept has caught the attention of many with a goldmine opportunity for the fashion Industry if used in the right direction.

Miramax Vs. Tarantino

A high intensity conflict of interest breakout when Oscar winner Quentin Tarantino tried to launch his NFT of the original handwritten screenplay of “Pulp Fiction” on block chain with SCRT Labs but it took a different turn a week before the launch, when US based studio Miramax’s Legal team sent a letter to SCRT Labs CEO Guy Zyskind claiming the infringement of Intellectual Property owned by Miramax and informed regarding the pending lawsuit.

NIKE’s Virtual Sneakers

The American Sportswear giant is silently building the portfolio for Metaverse by acquiring different start-ups & talent of the block chain space as the recent one was of RTFKT studios which creates sneakers with mixed reality technologies and they are simultaneously in process of protecting their famous trademarks of logos and slogans such as “NIKE” , “JUST DO IT” etc. for the new era of Metaverse which was seen in their application filed in the US. This shows the intent of Nike to truly transform & catch this opportunity by capturing the emerging market of Metaverse Fashion with a solid legal foundation.

Digital Crossover with Balenciaga

After a tease by Meta’s twitter account which asked Balenciaga for “Dress Code of Metaverse” left the fans and fashion enthusiasts speculating over the Metaverse plans of Spanish Luxury house.

Earlier they launched a collection with the Fortnite game in which you can select Balenciaga clothes for your digital avatars such as “Doggo” and you can even buy this game edition in some American physical stores too.

Now fans are predicting and eagerly waiting for the crossover of the Metaverse clothes by Balenciaga in the upcoming virtual world of Meta announced by Mark Zuckerberg.

NFT Game by Louis Vuitton

To mark the 200^th birth anniversary of their founder, LV launched an NFT based game “Louis The Game” in which the main character is their mascot “Vivienne” which covers a quest with rich LV history embedded with around 30 NFTs. This is an interesting way to integrate the past with the future along with promotion of their brand in that. This new exploration was made by LV in collaboration with famous NFT artist Beeple and the estimated value of the collection is around USD 70 Million.

Burberry’s NFT Toys

160 years old Burberry is accepting the new era of digital world with an open heart as they launched a limited edition toys named Shark B in the game Blankos Block Party.

This game was developed by Mythical games in which they presented an interesting way of trading for players where they can buy and sell their NFT toys as well as accessories which is specially designed by Burberry’s team.

Conclusion

The world is moving rapidly towards a mixed reality immersive environment with the advancement of Augmented and Virtual reality technologies which will further boost the adoption trend of the Metaverse as many brands and technology companies are aggressive on the Metaverse and even rebranding their brands. And this is just the beginning with time more companies will join these trends around the world.

In the article, we have seen how some brands are raising concerns of counterfeiting, IP conflicts or rejecting the idea of Metaverse all together and yet some brands are embracing the change by transforming the brand from the core by laying strong foundation and exploring different horizons and experimental designs. The future is exciting with new arenas forming in the creative economy, it will be interesting to see if different brands will resist or embrace the change with the sunrise of new realms of possibilities.

References:

Jason Nelson (Dec 16,2021) , Birkin handbag creator Hermes calls Metabirkin NFTs trademark infringement

https://decrypt.co/88431/birkin-handbag-creator-hermes-calls-metabirkin-nfts-trademark-infringement?amp=1

Mohit Khanna (Jan 3,2022) , H&M enters the Metaverse with a virtual 3D store in CEEK city Metaverse

www.indiatimes.com/amp/technology/news/hm-virtual-metaverse-store-558365.html

Dominic Patten (Jan 10,2022) , Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ NFT auction DOA ,Miramax claims

https://deadline.com/2022/01/quentin-tarantino-lawsuit-pulp-fiction-nft-auction-miramax-letter-1234907552/

Jessica Golden (Nov 2,2021) , Nike is quietly preparing for the Metaverse cnbc.com/amp/2021/11/02/nike-is-quietly-preparing-for-the-metaverse-.html
Jake Silbert (Nov,2021) , Zuck’s Metaverse may be fitted in Balenciaga https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/balenciaga-meta/
Ledger Insights (Aug 3,2021) , Louis Vuitton to Launch NFT game with Beeple art

https://www.ledgerinsights.com/louis-vuitton-nft-game-with-beeple-art/