Over the past few weeks and months, we’ve seen a lot of discussion, confusion and frustration about IP in the world of Web3. What IP usage rights come with the purchase of an NFT? What is CC0? How can a Web3 project change the usage rights after launch? It’s a topic that is far from simple, but one that is critical to understand and be clear about if we expect NFTs, and the digital asset category as a whole to continue to grow.

To help explain the issues, what they mean, and why they matter, I recently spoke with Oliver Scherenberg. Oliver is a German IP lawyer with a long history of helping brands and corporates to navigate the challenges of IP. More recently Oliver took up a personal interest in NFTs and has expanded the focus on his practice to include legal advice focus around digital assets. 

Oliver is also in the process of launch web3lex. While the tool isn’t yet live it is described as online legal education tool for the web3 community. It will contain insight not just from his home country of Germany, from a experts and contributors in markets around the world. This is one of the tools I am most excited to see launch in the near term.

Note that nothing in this podcast should be viewed as legal or financial advice. 

PODCAST TOPICS:

In our discussion, Oliver shares the story of how he missed Bitcoin and how that created an initial barrier to his diving into digital assets. That said, he is here now and has quickly become one of the foremost thinkers around IP in the space. 

The topics we discuss include:

• NFTs and the IP issues and questions that digital assets create
• What people are really buying when they buy an NFT
• What is CC0, and what it means for NFTs and NFT projects
• How IP rights impact NFT communities
• IP challenges that brands face in launching NFTs, as well as in partnering with existing NFT projects
• His ambitions for web3lex, the free to access legal education platform that he is in the process of building

LINKS TO SOME OF THE PROJECTS LAUREN AND I DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE

Moonbirds - https://www.moonbirds.xyz/

Mfers - https://opensea.io/collection/mfers

Non-Fungible Animals - https://www.wwf-nfa.com/

web3lex – https://www.web3lex.io/

CREDITS

Host: Justin Peyton

Guest: Oliver Scherenbert

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