Metaverse: Patent Infringement In Virtual Worlds

• Published date: 24 August 2022
• Subject Matter: Intellectual Property, Technology, Patent, Fin Tech
• Law Firm: Holland & Knight
• Author: Mr Jacob W Schneider

If patent holders want to exclude others from using their invention, then they need to keep an eye on the marketplace to spot infringers. Because the metaverse opens up a new, virtual and potentially endless space where infringement can occur, "virtual patent infringement" may be the next domain for enforcement. This post shakes free of the real world to dive into the metaverse and its potential for building virtual machines and algorithms that could, in theory, infringe patent rights. Before we get there, however, we should define the metaverse and discuss computing's history with virtualization.

I. What Is the Metaverse?

I have discussed the metaverse in an earlier post and presented on its implications to IP law, but broadly speaking, the "metaverse" is a collection of technologies that virtualizes spaces and things. As examples, a 3D world that you can explore in virtual reality (VR) is part of the metaverse (a virtual space), but so are the in-world objects you collect there (virtual things). Cryptocurrencies are a form of virtual money that some consider part of the metaverse, as are the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that sit next to the cryptocurrency on blockchains. Some may expand the term still further to include any virtual experience, including interacting with social media or meeting colleagues over Zoom.

II. Virtual Machines

Computers often virtualize objects in the real world as they perform calculations. For example, a calendar program is a virtual version of a traditional paper planner. One object that computers regularly virtualize, however, is less apparent: Computers can virtualize themselves as "virtual machines."

Virtual machines are software that emulates a physical machine, and the concept of them is nearly as old as modern computing. When computers were very large things, it would have been impossible to do what we regularly do now: Supply all users with their own computer. One solution to the problem was to divide computing time among users, where each of the user's programs received some set amount of time to run on the large machine in the basement. Another solution was to virtualize a less-powerful version of the physical computer in software. The physical computer would launch several virtual machines that modeled all components of the physical hardware in software, including processors and memory. Users could each use "dumb" terminals that had a little processing power themselves, but mostly acted as an interface to the virtual machines over a network. To the user at the terminal, the virtual machine with which they were interacting appeared to be exactly the same (albeit a little slower) than the physical beast in the basement.

Today, virtualization of physical computers is everywhere. Most web servers you...