Maria Samartseva, Counsel & Head of IP litigation practice at Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin and Partners (RGD), participated in the XXVI Russian Internet Forum (RIF) that took place on May 18-20.
Traditionally, the RIF brought together for three days IT experts, businessmen, owners of the most innovative and creative companies, investors, lawyers, and Internet professionals. The most trending topics related to cybersecurity, electronic commerce, Russian Internet economy, FinTech, marketing and education in the IT-industry were discussed within the event.
Maria spoke at the session “Metaverse: whether we benefit”, where NFT was considered as one of the components of the metaverse. The participants of the session discussed the characteristics of the metaverse, its current level and further development, challenges, including legal ones related to transferring to the metaverse and creation of a new social and economic model.
The metaverse is a “grey” and, as a result, potentially dangerous area of the law for a user. The absence of legal regulation of the metaverse itself and the relationships within it as well as the absence of legal responsibility leads to a sense of impunity and permissiveness which brings threat and risks for metaverse’s users.
Maria told about NFT, various areas of application, challenges and problems related to these technologies. She covered the issues of plagiarism, regulation and protection of copyright. The speaker also discussed the Hermitage NFT case and reviewed the latest court precedents related to digital art and NFT in China and UK.
Dmitry Marinichev, Internet ombudsman, acted as a co-speaker of the session. The moderators were Marina Rozhkova (IP Club) and Sergey Kopylov (The Coordination Center for the Top-Level Domains .RU/.РФ). The topic triggered debates among participants and a lot of questions.
Russian Internet Forum is an annual forum of Russian Internet users, one of the key events of the IT Industry in Russia held since 1997. More information can be found on the RIF 2022 website.
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Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin & Partners (RGD) is a fast-paced law firm of the next generation, combining a leading Russian practice focusing on international dispute resolution and a high-end corporate practice servicing complex transactions and projects.
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Our lawyers have worked on the largest corporate deals, investigations and disputes in the history of modern Russia and represented Russian companies in over 170 jurisdictions worldwide.
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