Competition and IP in virtual worlds: granularity or dominance

Abstract

[EN]Metaverses (now ‘rebranded’ as virtual worlds) are going to be the ‘digital and phygital platforms’ in the immediate future. Their development goes hand in hand with the evolution of other technologies such as blockchain, augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. This paper aims to map the different possibilities offered by these new realities, starting from the study of new market configurations and pointing out the challenges they offer to current regulation, especially from the perspective of intellectual property and the applicability of rules on digital services.