Transcript Ep. 340: Excited About Your Bored Ape or CryptoPunk? Make Sure You Understand Your IP Rights

Laura Shin: 

Hi, all. Today I'm announcing that I'll be hosting a series of book clubs in which we can discuss my book, The Cryptopians, with me and a group of 22 people. Starting on April 26, we will sell NFT tickets to five book clubs, all of which will take place on my Discord, and they'll be from May 2 to May 10. Two of the book clubs will feature special guests. One will feature Christoph Jentzsch, Griff Green, and Lefteris Karapetsas, who are all involved in the Dow, and the other will feature Andrey Ternovskiy of Chatroulette!. The sale of the NFT tickets will take place on Bitski. You can see my profile there now at bitski.com/@Laurashin. The NFT tickets will not be visible until the sale goes live on April 26 at 1 p.m. Eastern, but bookmark that page now if you're interested in participating in one of these book clubs. The dates and times are in the show notes. They'll all be 90 minutes, and I think it'll be a really fun and easy way to chat with me and with others who've read the book in a way where you don't have to worry about spoilers. So, all the details will also be in the daily newsletter if you're signed up for that, and if you're not, then go to unchainedpodcast.com right now to sign up, and now, onto the show.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Unchained, your no-hype resource for all things crypto. I’m your host, Laura Shin, author of The Cryptopians. I started covering crypto six years ago, and as a senior editor at Forbes, was the first mainstream media reporter to cover cryptocurrency full-time. This is the April 12, 2022 episode of Unchained. 

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Today's topic is the intellectual property rights of NFTs, and what the owners of Bored Apes, CryptoPunks, Meebits, and other NFTs should know. Here to discuss are Stuart Levi, Partner and Co-Head of the Technology Transaction and Intellectual Property Group at Skadden Arps, and Marta Belcher, General Counsel at Protocol Labs and Chair of the Filecoin Foundation. Welcome, Stuart and Marta.

Stuart Levi:

Thanks, Laura.

Marta Belcher:

Great to be here.

Laura Shin:

So, let's just start talking about how Yuga Labs, the creators of Bored Apes, recently acquired CryptoPunks and Meebits from their creators, Larva Labs. At that time, it was really big news and seen as a victory for the model in which the creators give some of the intellectual property rights to the buyers of those NFTs. However, Stuart, you reached out to me to say that you felt that there are actually a lot of misconceptions over what rights the owners of these NFTs actually have. So, that's the premise for the show, but before we actually dive into that story and this full topic, let's just make sure everybody understands all the definitions. So, let's just go over terms like trademark and copyright, commercial rights, etcetera. So, just between the two of you, why don't you just explain what are the different kinds of intellectual property rights that are or could be associated with NFTs?