Intellectual Property Enforcement In The Metaverse, Part 3

In Part 1 of this three-part blog series, we examined how intellectual property (IP) online is normally enforced and how that model may translate to the metaverse. Part 2 focused on the implications for IP enforcement of certain metaverse properties linked to the blockchain. We now conclude with a bigger-picture analysis of the future of IP enforcement in the metaverse.

Regardless of whether a metaverse property is on the blockchain or adheres to traditional notions of land ownership, there is a number of other issues that could affect how intellectual property rights are enforced in the metaverse.

Searchability

Entities such as YouTube have a fairly substantial ability to identify infringing content, as videos uploaded to YouTube are scanned against a database of audio and visual content prior to publication. It's unclear that a similar ability to automatically scan items for content exists (or could exist) in the metaverse, especially where metaverse