Indian courts providing legal clarity for Web 3.0 and Metaverse
Dhruv Garg and Utkarsh Srivastava
In a recent landmark judgment delivered in the matter of Digital Collectibles v. Galactacus Funware in April 2023, the Delhi High Court had the opportunity to analyse the effects of non-fungible tokens or NFT-based digital player cards in relation to intellectual property rights in India. While the judgement appears to be limited in the scope to assessing the right of publicity in India, it has far-reaching implications for the regulation of NFTs, beyond just the skill-based online gaming sector and fantasy sports.
NFTs, along with cryptocurrencies, smart contracts and virtual reality, are generally viewed as core components of what is termed as Web3 technologies. These technologies are expected to shape the contours of the next generation of world wide web use. While many of these innovations are already seeing deployment across a variety of use cases, legal guidance on their use is extremely sparse. In fact, the Digital Collectibles v. Galactacus Funware case marks the first such instance of the Indian higher judiciary reckoning with the nuances of NFT technology through a legal dispute.
This post was originally published on Moneycontrol and can be accessed here.