Akerman special counsel Rola Daaboul spoke with Women's Wear Daily ahead of its virtual Tech Forum on June 30, where Daaboul will be a guest speaker discussing the legal considerations of the metaverse for retail brands. In the article, "Executives from Meta, Google, Nordstrom and Selfridges to be Showcased at Tech Forum," Daaboul explained that protecting intellectual property is at the forefront of every brand building out of the metaverse, but merchants, brands, and their legal advisers are learning in real time how to apply intellectual property law because the infrastructure is not yet established. 

“[Building out the metaverse infrastructure is] at the forefront of every major brand and even minor ones’ minds right now,” Daaboul said. “So what they’re doing is arming and protecting themselves as they go into this new venture. They’re preserving their brand so they can stake their claim in potential metaverse real estate—to build their shops, make sure that the brand is thoroughly represented in this new space, and preserve their ability to market their product there.”

Daaboul continued, “Expanding that into this new space is starting to bring new questions to the forefront, as people file these lawsuits. To a certain extent, we already have the core principles of intellectual property law that we’re applying. But a lot of this right now is ‘do it, and then let’s wait and see what happens.’ Because the entire infrastructure has not yet been fully built out.”