Matt Goldberg — an incredibly multi-talented attorney, journalist, and artist — has been invited to speak at the prestigious California Lawyers Association's Licensing and Tech Transactions Interest Group on December 13, 2024 @ 12 noon. This honor comes on the heels of Matt's insightful article on NFTs, which has garnered interest for its depth and clarity: 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑰𝒔 𝑵𝒐 𝑺𝒑𝒐𝒐𝒏: 𝑰𝑷 𝑳𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝑵𝑭𝑻𝒔, 𝑫𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝑫𝒊𝒔𝒏𝒆𝒚, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝑬𝑪’𝒔 𝑱𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑶𝒗𝒆𝒓 “𝑰𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒔”. (𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴). Congratulations, Matt, on this well-deserved recognition! For anyone interested in the cutting edge of IP law and technology, please reach out to Matthew Dedon at [email protected] for login details and presentation materials.
Happy Holidays, everyone! After we emerge from our post-Thanksgiving food comas, but before Christmas season gets into full swing, keep the holiday spirit going by joining us for the next presentation of the Licensing and Tech Transactions Interest Group, part of the IP Section of the California Lawyers Association. The presentation is Friday, December 13th, at 12pm Pacific. As always, attendance is free, and attendees will be eligible to receive .75 MCLE self-study credits. This month we will be exploring NFTs. Our speaker is the esteemed attorney, writer, and artist Matt Goldberg. There is No Spoon: IP rights in NFTs and the SEC's jurisdiction over "investment contracts." While NFTs typically are associated with artwork, video clips or low-fi illustrations, buying an NFT does not necessarily transfer IP rights to its purchaser. Some of the most popular and expensive NFTs, however, do tend to permit the NFT’s owner to commercialize the copyrights associated with the NFT’s underlying content. In such cases, these rights “run with” the NFT, meaning they are rights incident to ownership. The right to make and sell derivative works based on an NFT one owns should make the NFT less likely to qualify as an investment contract subject to SEC jurisdiction. Broad grants of commercialization rights are a way to refute arguments under the seminal SEC v. W.J. Howie case that purchasers are investing in a common enterprise where the value of the NFT will be primarily driven by others. If you are interested in attending, please email me for the login details and presentation materials: [email protected].