IP Talk Episode 16: Riding the NFT Wave with John Strand

John Strand is a shareholder in Wolf Greenfield’s Trademark & Copyright Practice. He focuses on the enforcement and defense of intellectual property rights in trademarks, trade dress, domain names, and patents.

In addition to his contested matter work, John has extensive experience in counseling clients to help avoid disputes and develop their IP protection, especially in the area of Web 3.0 and blockchain technologies, which includes cryptocurrencies and NFTs, non-fungible tokens. NFTs enable a buyer to purchase ownership of a digital good in the form of a unique digital token living on a blockchain.

In this episode of IP Talk with Wolf Greenfield, John will help us make sense of this new digital trend and offer suggestions on how owners can protect their IP rights. Here are a few of the highlights:

• 01:08 – Some background on NFTs and where they stand in relation to blockchain technologies
• 03:14 – IP issues related to NFTs
• 05:16 – The problem with protecting IP rights when the blockchain is involved
• 07:05 - IP protection suggestions for content creators to consider before publishing their work for sale
• 08:03 - Trey Songz sold an NFT album last year. Lessons for other artists considering this move
• 09:52 – After the initial hype about NFTs, what will the market look like?