Legal developments concerning blockchain and digital assets are not limited to the English-speaking world. Earlier this year, some thought-provoking developments on digital assets and related technologies emerged in Spanish-speaking civil law jurisdictions. These include a ruling from a Barcelona court on the intersection of intellectual property rights with NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and metaverse applications. In addition, a new law in Mexico recognizes the use of online, smart-contract–based alternative dispute resolution systems.

Infringing Physical Original Works Through Digital and Virtual Versions?

In January, the Ninth Commercial Court in Barcelona, Spain, issued a novel ruling in the case of Visual Entidad de Gestión de Artistas Plásticos v. Punto Fa, Resolución No. 11/2024, where use of copyrighted artwork in NFTs and in a metaverse were challenged as unlawful infringements but were upheld as amounting to a permissible "fair use."

The case arose from an artistic exhibit that the Spanish fashion brand Mango had commissioned in May 2022 to mark the inauguration of Mango's newest store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The exhibit was presented in three realms: the physical, the digital, and the virtual, the latter two of which gave rise to the dispute.