White & Case secures dismissal for Mango in cutting-edge metaverse art dispute

Global law firm White & Case LLP has successfully represented Punto Fa, S.L., the company trading as Mango, the well-known Spanish fashion brand, in securing the dismissal of a lawsuit based on alleged breaches of intellectual property rights of pieces of art created by well-known Spanish artists. 

The claim was brought by Spanish entity Visual Entidad de Gestión de Artistas Plásticos (Vegap), which manages the intellectual property rights of more than 150,000 authors and artists globally.

The dispute was resolved in a landmark judgment of the commercial courts of Barcelona that resolved, for the first time in Spain, the question of the proper balance between the intellectual property rights of the original artists and the rights of transformation and innovation of the owner, including the right to create new artworks in the metaverse. 

The derivative works were created in lazy minted non-fungible tokens (NFT) form and exhibited in the metaverse as part of the opening of Mango’s new flagship store on New York’s Fifth Avenue. The court decision is additionally noteworthy as it applied the US fair use doctrine and recognized its application in the Spanish legal system, following a previous decision of the Spanish Supreme Court in April 2012 in which a company succeeded based on this doctrine. This judgment becomes part of the body of rulings that have developed this doctrine internationally. 

In addition to the complete dismissal of Vegap’s lawsuit, Mango was awarded the legal costs of the proceedings. 

The White & Case team in Madrid which represented Mango was led by partner Francisco Málaga and local partner Marcos Soberón and included associates Eloy Algorri and Ainhoa Busto.

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