We live in a world where things can hold a different meaning at different times. This allows us to restructure our priorities according to the given environment and achieve optimal results in all our undertakings. Such a setup, as you would guess, does a lot for us in terms of promoting a flexible brand of growth, but even with that dynamic taking up a more apparent position, we cannot really overlook the drawbacks it brings into play. You see, when you move around the elements too much, it creates a sense of volatility, therefore eventually setting you up for less desirable results. There are, in fact, several examples to back the said repercussion up, and a big one among them comes from our regulatory industry. Regulatory industry has faced some huge challenges thus far in its journey, and yet none of them can boast posing as many difficulties at the sphere as technology. In hindsight, we can see how technology’s ingenious capabilities literally blindsided the regulators. The creation’s unlimited dimensions were impossible to track, so soon enough, we were witnessing every rule breaker using technology like a shield against the governing forces, leaving them behind by quite some distance. Nevertheless, it seems like the recent times have triggered a whole new power shift. The tide is swinging back in the regulators’ favor, and they have a chance to prove it through one recent lawsuit.
Nike has officially sued an online marketplace called StockX for releasing NFTs evidently centered on Nike shoes. According to the complaint, out of StockX’s nine limited-edition Vault NFT series, eight are linked rather brazenly to Nike products. The Vault NFTs referred to here are a recent addition to StockX’s platform. The company launched it in January for giving the customers an option to redeem them in exchange of physical goods or trade purely as digital items. However, Nike claims that, by using pictures of their corresponding product-line, the online reseller has committed multiple violations like trademark infringement, false designation of origin, trademark dilution, and many others.
“StockX almost exclusively used Nike’s marks to launch its Vault NFTs because it knew that doing so would garner attention, drive sales, and confuse consumers into believing that Nike collaborated with StockX on the Vault NFTs. StockX is using Nike’s trademarks to market, promote, and attract potential purchasers,” the lawsuit stated.
To effectively counter the lawsuit, StockX must prove that the available NFTs are an extension of its normal reselling process, but as Nike notes, the option to redeem the NFTs for actual shoes is still not operational, hence creating a scenario where StockX could land in deep trouble for treating the tokens as separate products.