The fall season of the popular in-world metaverse business and policy show Metanomics kicks off in Second Life on Monday, September 22, at 12:00 (noon) Pacific with a special edition of Metanomics featuring the show’s usual host, Professor Robert Bloomfield of Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, in the guest chair.

I am honored to have been asked to interview Robert live on this show.  I will be asking Robert about his experiences producing the first year of Metanomics, his view of the future of the metaverse, his favorite moments over the last year, criticism of the show, and much more.  The show will be a mixed reality event, with Robert appearing both in Second Life (as ‘Beyers Sellers’) and live at Roskilde University in Denmark where Robert is visiting as a guest researcher this week as part of Roskilde’s ongoing projects on metaverse innovation.

Metanomics is typically produced in Second Life, though has been “broadcast” from other virtual worlds.  You can learn more about the show at metanomics.net, and can catch up on old episodes at SLCN.tv.

[Update: If you can't log in to Second Life at noon Pacific on Monday, you can watch the video feed and participate in chat via the web.]

We periodically run “Virtual Law Quicklinks” whenever we have a backlog of interesting items that aren’t big enough for full posts. Here’s today’s batch.

• Eros, the virtual adult-animation company owned by Second Life’s ‘Stroker Serpentine,’ has secured registration for the “SexGen” trademark.  Eros has been at the center of two lawsuits over in-world copyright and trademark infringement, and this move will enhance the company’s ability to police use of the trademark in the virtual world in the future.  Thanks to Second Life’s ‘Erica Dalglish’ for the heads-up.

• There’s some interesting commentary on virtual world business licenses from Second Life’s ‘Grace McDunnough’ at Phasing Grace, her blog.  Thanks to Second Life’s ‘Sophrosyne Stenvaag‘ for pointing me there.

• Raph Koster announced that the Terms of Service for Metaplace will be based on his oft-cited “A Declaration of the Rights of Avatars” (which he graciously granted permission to reprint as an appendix of Virtual Law).  The draft terms on Raph’s site need some work if they’re going to be enforceable, and it may prove hard for Metaplace to stick to its guns on a few of the more player-friendly terms when questions of liability start popping up, but the move is impressive, and is sure to attract some users.

• Terra Nova is running a post from Professor Josuha Fairfield about a symposium on the regulation of kids worlds October 3 in Lexington, Virginia.  The symposium features around a dozen professors and researchers, and is free to attend.   Registration is here.

• Finally, according to an article at SLNN, there’s trouble over at Central Grid (an OpenSimulator-based virtual world) and someone is threatening a lawsuit against Frank Corsi (better known as ‘Jasper Tizzy,’ formerly of Second Life, where allegations also flew).  I can’t even begin to tell what’s going on here (which is typical in this sort of thing, and why I don’t usually cover claims like this) but the potential plaintiff does have an attorney (Bob Brackman, the subject of an earlier article), so it’s worth a skeptical link.  I’ll cover it in more detail if it turns into anything.  Thanks to Second Life’s ‘Doubledown Tandino‘ for the link.

Several key trademark applications for Second Life creator Linden Lab will be published for opposition over the next month.  Applications slated to enter this phase include those for the marks:

• SL
• YOUR WORLD. YOUR IMAGINATION.
• SECOND LIFE GRID
• SL GRID
• SECOND
• 2ND LIFE

Linden Lab has applications entering this phase for two logos (pictured right and below) as well.

Linden Lab also has an application entering this phase on the name “SECOND LIFE” but has previously registered the name, and this application appears to merely expand the categories of goods and services for which the mark is registered.

“Publication for opposition” means that these trademark applications have emerged from the internal USPTO process and will be registered as trademarks if there is no opposition, or if any opposition is overcome.  The USPTO explains: “An opposition is a proceeding in which one party is seeking to prevent registration of another party’s trademark. Under the law, if a party believes that he will be damaged by the registration of a mark, he can file an opposition.”   Oppositions are heard by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

Opening a second front in its dispute over “SLART” with artist and “SLART” trademark registrant Richard Minsky, Second Life creator Linden Lab has filed a Petition for Cancellation (.pdf) with the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeals Board seeking to cancel registration of “SLART.”  Minsky has filed an Answer (.pdf).  Trial (which, at the TTAB, is largely conducted by written submissions) is set for summer and fall, 2009.

Linden Lab’s core argument is that Minsky made a series of misrepresentations to the USPTO in order to secure registration of the mark and so Minsky “is not entitled to Registration No. 3399258 because [he] committed fraud in the procurement of the subject registration.”  Minsky denies these claims, and further argues that “after more than four years of widespread use of SL as a generic descriptive term, [Linden Lab] had no rights in the mark SL.”

Minsky’s attorney in this action is Tamiko Franklin (Second Life’s ‘Juris Amat’), who was featured on this site earlier this year when she founded the non-profit Virtual Intellectual Property Organization, and again last month when she was elected to the Executive Board of the SL Bar Association.  Linden Lab is represented by Bobby A. Ghajar and James R. Cady, of Howrey LLP.

Excerpts from Linden Lab’s Petition and Minsky’s Answer follow.

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The first few weeks of the SLART trademark lawsuit between artist/”SLART” trademark registrant Richard Minsky and Linden Lab, et. al. have been busy, and culminated in a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) by Consent (.pdf) governing Linden Lab’s short-term response to complaints about the use of “SLART” in Second Life.

Minsky had originally sought (and was granted) a TRO which included provisions directing Linden Lab to stop “hiding the identities of users of its service who infringe on the SLART trademark” and stop “harassing Plaintiff with threats and/or directives to stop contacting other users,”  but the Court reversed its decision after a hearing on September 10 via a docket entry, “Motion for TRO filed by Richard Minsky … The Court RESERVES decision.”  The parties subsequently agreed to the current TRO by Consent.

Unless the case is terminated, the TRO by Consent will remain in force until the judge decides whether to grant a preliminary injunction, likely in late October.  If granted, the preliminary injunction would then replace this TRO and remain in force until the case concludes.

For the full background of this case, see the site’s ongoing coverage of the SLART trademark lawsuit.  Excerpts from the TRO and the minutes of the September 10 hearing follow.

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Stephen Wu (California attorney, Second Life’s ‘Legal Writer’, President-Elect of the SL Bar Association, current Vice-Chair of the Section of Science & Technology Law of the American Bar Association, and the guy who put me in touch with the ABA’s publishing people about writing Virtual Law) has set up a dedicated website for his 3D internet law practice, and is writing an accompanying blog.  I’m adding it to my reading list, and hope you do too.

I was only able to spend one day at the Virtual Worlds Expo in LA last week, but the big virtual law story was unmistakable: large U.S. law firms are starting to get more involved in 3D internet legal issues.

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman (sporting a spiffy new logo and single-name branding) drew the most attention for an announcement that Pillsbury is creating a practice group with a specific focus on virtual worlds.  There are other firms with video game practice groups, of course, but this is a virtual worlds and video games team, and I believe it makes Pillsbury the first major U.S. law firm to specifically target the emerging 3D internet market by name.  Kudos to team co-founders IP Section head James Gatto and IP partner Evan Finkel, as well as the rest of the team.

Pillsbury’s lawyers had company; I talked to ten or fifteen other attorneys, many from big firms.  Firms were even sponsoring events at the Expo this time.  Latham & Watkins, the home of Roxanne Christ (Co-Chair of the Publications Subcommittee of the American Bar Association’s Special Committee on Computer Gaming and Virtual Worlds) sponsored a VIP reception for speakers at the Latham offices in Los Angeles, and Nixon Peabody sponsored lunch.

A lucky search at the USPTO turned up Patent No. 7,117,136 (.pdf) describing a whole-body input device with built-in force feedback.  The patent issued to Second Life founder and former Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale in 2006, and has been assigned to Linden Lab.

How does it work?  “An input and feedback system for use with simulator devices immobilizes a portion of the user’s body using a securement device which holds the immobilized portion in a fixed position. [...] Such immobilizing devices may be used to allow input and feedback based on the motion of various parts of the user’s body, such as the head, arms, legs, and torso.”

So basically, it’s a rudimentary holodeck, with straps and helmets.  Images from the patent follow.  Jokes go in the comments.

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In a virtual property first, Sweden’s Mindark, creator of the real cash economy-based game/virtual world Entropia Universe is, according to a post at Entropia Forum (which translates a Swedish article), creating wills to allow the inheritance of virtual property.  The article also discusses the tax situation regarding gains in Entropia. and notes, for what I believe is the very first time, that a revenue service is taxing virtual world activity (”since Spring”) under specific, implemented tax rules.

Regarding wills for transferring virtual property on death:

The company Mindark from Gothenburg will begin to draw up wills for their customers to cover the things they own in their virtual computer world.  It’s a natural development, says project manager Carl Uggla.

And regarding taxing profits made in virtual worlds:

The IRS [of Sweden] has since spring begun to tax the activities within online worlds. We’re not performing any bigger investigations. It’s more of a service and a way for us to be clear about the rules. I have got questions from several entrepreneurs who want to start activities in these worlds and about how they should go about it.  People want to do what’s right, says Dag Hardyson at the Swedish IRS.

Martina Bertilsson sees the IRS’s actions as the logical one.  It’s about validating this business sector, she says.  A lot of what happens online is still in a legislative gray area and open for pure legal interpretation, but there are now rules implemented regarding income tax for people living in Sweden, she says.

The SL Bar Association is offering a free California CLE seminar in Second Life Tuesday, September 9 at 12:00 Noon, Pacific, at the Association’s in-world headquarters (SLURL).  The seminar will focus on trademarks, and will be presented by SLBA President-Elect Stephen Wu (SL’s ‘Legal Writer’).

From the seminar description:

Three-dimensional virtual worlds such as Second Life are already being used for both business and pleasure, and their use in business, communications and e-commerce is projected to grow. Virtual worlds often provide users tools to create and market their own “in-world” content. Trademark infringement is rampant in Second Life. Mr. Wu will discuss the risks posed to trademark owners by widespread infringement, and how a failure to police their marks may cause them to lose their valuable trademark rights. He will also discuss the issues raised by trademark use and infringement in virtual worlds generally, including issues applicable to clients faced with infringement of their own trademarks and to those accused of infringing the trademarks of others.

About the presenter:

Stephen Wu is a partner in the Silicon Valley law firm Cooke Kobrick & Wu LLP, and is Secretary of the American Bar Association Section of Science and Technology Law. He advises clients concerning e-discovery, electronic records retention, digital evidence, and legal matters relating to information security, privacy, and ecommerce. His litigation practice also includes trademark infringement, other intellectual property, and general commercial litigation matters.