header-logo header-logo

The metaverse & me

228896
As virtual worlds continue to expand, so do the avenues for legal disputes within them: Jacqueline Watts explains why lawyers should get to grips with the metaverse

Many legal practitioners still dismiss the metaverse as either a gaming platform with no real-world impact, or a tech fad destined to fade like others before it. This view overlooks its rapid evolution and growing significance.

For lawyers, understanding the metaverse is no longer optional. Platforms like Roblox already host vast, interactive economies where real transactions and social interactions occur daily. The industrial metaverse is reshaping how people live, work and connect; from training surgeons in immersive environments to building digital twins. With users transacting, socialising and even bequeathing virtual digital assets in these environments, legal oversight is essential.

With this evolution comes the inevitable rise in disputes. Whether triggered by commercial disagreements, intellectual property (IP) infringement, virtual asset theft or avatar misconduct, the need for effective litigation and dispute resolution mechanisms in respect of the metaverse is no

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Harneys—Maggie Kwok & George Weston

Harneys—Maggie Kwok & George Weston

Harneys senior leadership appointments

Freeths—Keith Browne & Jim Jordan

Freeths—Keith Browne & Jim Jordan

Freeths strengthens London Construction and Engineering practice with two strategic senior hires

Anthony Collins—Laura Moss

Anthony Collins—Laura Moss

Anthony Collins announces strategic hire to deepen skills base in the social business sector

NEWS
Existing defamation law can respond to AI ‘hallucinations’, but allocating responsibility will prove harder where outputs reach users without human intervention
The High Court has upheld a rare successful serious-irregularity challenge after an arbitrator relied on an implied term neither party had advanced
Thirty years after The Future of Law shook a profession still using fax machines, its central forecast looks increasingly less like prophecy and more like description
More than 100 teams from the legal and financial services sectors competed in five sports at the 51st Law Society RFC Festival of Sport earlier this month
Part-time status need only be an effective cause of less favourable treatment, rather than the sole cause, the Supreme Court has held in Augustine v Data Cars
back-to-top-scroll