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The idea of trademarks on virtual goods mirroring identical physical goods feels a bit meta, and that's the point. Enter the metaverse -- a growing, multibillion-dollar industry that goes far beyond multiplayer games. Now, with formerly brick-and-mortar businesses entering the metaverse, how can businesses protect their intellectual property -- particularly the goodwill in their brands -- in a transient world where goods and services are intangible?

To protect goods and services in the metaverse, attorneys should know what the metaverse is. The metaverse generally refers to a virtual world where users may interact with others through computer-generated avatars. See Steven Ehrlich, "The Metaverse Explained," Forbes (March 10, 2023). The term "metaverse" first appeared in Neal Stephenson's 1992 dystopian novel "Snow Crash," where Stephenson used "metaverse" to describe a digital world where people -- through their avatars -- interact in a way that mirrors reality. See Alex Clere, "Timeline: looking back through the making of the metaverse," FinTech Magazine (Feb. 13, 2023), see also, Rick Howard, " Book Review: Snow Crash," The Ohio State University Institute for Cybersecurity & Digital Trust, https://icdt.osu.edu/snow-crash (last accessed Aug. 22, 2024).