GA_P advises VEGAP in its litigation against Mango for the exhibition of artworks in the metaverse

Gómez-Acebo & Pombo has advised VEGAP (Visual Entidad de Gestión de Artistas Plásticos) in the legal proceedings against MANGO (PUNTO FA) for the unauthorised use of works by Miquel Barceló, Joan Miró and Antoni Tàpies in the metaverse, the creation of NFTs and other advertising uses, obtaining a favourable ruling from the Barcelona Provincial Court which upholds all the claims in VEGAP’s lawsuit.

The sentence, which can be appealed in cassation, revokes the sentence of the Commercial Court nº 9 of Barcelona and declares the infringement of the intellectual property rights, both economic and moral, of the owners of the works represented by VEGAP, prohibiting PUNTO FA from using the works in the economic traffic, and condemning it, among others, to compensate the economic and moral damages caused.

The judgment constitutes a significant milestone in the field of copyright in that it is the first time that a Spanish court has addressed the infringement of economic and moral rights of authors in the field of metaverse and NFTs, and confirms the restricted scope of the rights of the owner of the physical medium of the work and expressly declares the non-application of the doctrine of fair use as it is not compatible with national and European law on the limits of copyright.

The GA_P team was led by: Anna Viladás and José Luis Amérigo