During last week’s Practice Work Shop (PWS) Session, Samreen Iboo Sait, Associate, led a discussion on “Is Opting Out of the Metaverse an Advisable Strategy for Brands?”. The session saw an insightful discussion on the potential for monetization of IP within the metaverse. Given that many brands have started to sell their virtual goods in the metaverse, the discussion focused upon whether opting out of the metaverse would be a viable option for brands in the long run. The session concluded with a debate on whether entering the metaverse would be more beneficial for brands in certain certain industries as compared to others.

General IP Interns – Yashi Agarwal and Tanya Kanchan Soni (Final Year), Nabira Farman, Killampalli Lakshmi Meghana and Rahul Kumar Choudhary (Pre-Final Year) have commenced their General IP Internship with the firm’s law practice.

We hope their stay in the firm during the 4 week period of their internship will be mutually enriching and that the firm and they will learn exciting things from each other!

General IP Interns – Tripti M Kumar and Tarini Sharma (Final Year Interns); Harsh Agrawal (Pre-Final Year Intern) have successfully completed their Internship at ALG. At the end of their internship, they obliged us with their thoughts and ideas during the Sharing of Reflections (SoR) sessions. Their presence enriched the firm while they interned here. We wish them all the best in their future endeavours.

A ‘Legal Issues Seminar – General IP’ (LIS-GIP) was conducted by Hardik Choudhary, Associate, on “Is the Requirement of Bad Faith under UDRP Required to be Proved in Respect of Both Registration and Use?”. The seminar delved into the conjunctive requirement of bad faith in registration and use under the UDRP and the history behind such requirement. Decisions from various WIPO Administrative panels and the EResolution forum were discussed to demonstrate a diversion of views as to the conjunctive requirement. The session concluded with an interesting discussion on the differences between the UDRP, INDRP, and other national domain policies with respect to bad faith, as well as the need to amend the UDRP to relax the conjunctive bad faith requirement.

The presentation can be accessed here.

During last week’s Practice Work Shop (PWS) Session, Hardik Choudhary, Associate, led a discussion on “Do Virtual Avatars in Metaverse Create Character Merchandising Issues?”. The session saw an insightful discussion on the metaverse and infringement of intellectual property rights in the virtual world. The discussion focused upon whether character merchandising rights of owners are affected in the metaverse, and explored the idea of integrating NFTs and virtual avatars to avoid such issues. The session concluded with a debate on the issue of virtual ownership of avatars in the metaverse and the liability of the users and the metaverse platforms.