It has been more than a year since the non-fungible token hype hit the internet.
Since then, countless intellectual property disputes have surrounded the token.
But only a few NFT spats have reached the courts, and final decisions have been delivered in even fewer cases.
Justice Wang Jiangqiao, a judge at the Hangzhou Internet Court, was picked for our top 50 list for delivering China’s first-ever ruling in a dispute concerning NFTs and IP infringement.
In his April edict in Shenzhen Qice Diechu Cultural Creativity v Hangzhou Yuanyuzhou Technology, Jianqiao settled the long-debated legal status of the token and held that an NFT was a digital commodity.
He also clarified that the sale of an NFT did not trigger an automatic transfer of the IP in the underlying artwork.
According to the ruling, the sale of an unauthorised NFT did not violate the copyright owner's right to distribute the underlying work but infringed their right to communicate through information networks.
Jianqiao also held that NFT marketplaces had a higher obligation to review uploaded content than regular internet service providers and that they should make efforts to verify the copyright ownership of underlying works associated with NFTs.
As a result of his precedential ruling, IP owners in China can now feel a lot more secure about their rights in NFT marketplaces.
