Copyright law and non-fungible tokens: experience from China

Abstract

While the popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has brought significant profits, legal practitioners have been exposed to unanswered legal concerns behind the frenzy of NFT transactions. Generally, such concerns include those related to the applicability of copyright to NFTs, the legal relationship between an NFT and the tokenized work, and the copyrights associated with the NFT in transactions. The Hangzhou Internet Court released the first NFT-related copyright case, setting a course for the subsequent judicial and business practice of IP-related NFTs nationally and internationally. With these general considerations in mind, the paper briefly introduces what non-fungible tokens are and how they relate to copyright law. Specifically, by interpreting the first NFT-related copyright decision in detail, the paper addresses the legal status of NFT and NFT transactions from the perspective of Chinese Copyright Law, with particular focus on the liability of online platforms and the applicability of the exhaustion doctrine.