A WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF LEGAL & TECH EVENTS GLOBALLY | April 30th – May 6th, 2021
THIS IS REFLECTIONS, our weekly roundup of events in the legal and technology sector, covering various topics and interesting learning points for today’s professional. If you couldn’t make an event, don’t worry, we probably made it and have all the juicy scoop for your reading pleasure and learning.
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EVENT ONE
GLOBAL DIGITAL CURRENCIES AND LAW
6TH OF MAY, 2021
INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW
Digital currencies effectively mean monetary currencies that are evidenced electronically, and not in physically tangible form. They are used in terms of transferring money from financial institutions to other institutions or corporations and they are typically referred to as wire transfers.
Digital payment has not been accessible to retail consumers but that is fast changing because of the happenings in recent times. The world is focused fully on trying to improve the speed and efficiency of making payments. The speaker pointed out that asides from wanting to improve the speed and efficiency of making payments, there are three motivating factors that have really made this a very critical time for the advancement of digital payment.
First is the People’s Bank of China that has been developing a retail digital currency, to be known as digital Yuan. Secondly, for several years, Facebook has announced the development of a Currency called Libras. It is to be used as a privately issued global digital currency. The 3rd is the Covid-19 pandemic which has caused retail stores to refuse to accept cash because cash is inherently dirty, it goes among many hands, and there is concern that it could transmit infection.
Professor Steven pointed out that there is a great deal of interest in global digital currency. Various governmental bodies have been considering it. Three major reports were issued in October of 2020 by the Financial Stability Board and other organizations that have looked at how to develop global digital currencies. In essence, it is an innovation that has come to stay.
CATEGORIES OF DIGITAL ASSETS
The speaker categorised digital assets into two. One is referred to as CBDC which stands for Central Bank Digital Currencies. CBDC are those that are sponsored by Central Banks, Bank of England, the Federal Reserve etc.
Another category is privately issued digital currencies that are backed by reference assets like gold that have intrinsic value. He mentioned that there are also other privately issued digital currencies that are not backed by reference assets and have no intrinsic value. An example is cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin which is not backed by a stable asset. The speaker however decided to focus on central bank digital currencies, which essentially remained fiat currencies of central banks, and the privately issued digital currencies that are backed by reference assets having intrinsic value like gold.
CHALLENGES OF ASSESING CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCIES
The speaker focused on Central bank digital currencies which are more stable, unlike cryptocurrency. He however highlighted some challenges retail customers will face which includes:
- increasing or reducing the cost of transferring the currency
- increasing accessibility
He suggested that an account-based digital currency may be able to solve the above issue
APPROACH TO DIGITAL CURRENCY
The speaker mentioned that countries have not quite agreed on the form the digital currency will take but are currently considering choosing between an “account-based digital currency” and a “token-based” digital currency.
The speaker however expressed support for an “account-based digital currency” as it protects existing deposits and also protects the banking system against disintermediation (disintermediation means the removal of commercial banks from transactions between a consumer and the central bank itself. The implication of this is that when consumers deposit money into commercial banks, they technically are making a loan to the central bank). It would also help to harmonize cross border payments and cross border transactions since banks will be interacting with one another.
LEGAL ASPECT
On the Legal aspects of the currencies and the effects in the legal space, the speaker suggested that there should exist a uniform model law that different jurisdictions can consider adopting as domestic legislation in their jurisdiction. And the legislation would ideally use the same language so that if two or more different jurisdictions were to enact a model law, the model law would be the same in each of these different countries.
He suggested model laws because they have in practice shown that they are more flexible, they’re less formal than treaties. And they have a more relaxed nature about them. He stated that, in areas where it has been difficult to reach an international treaty, such as international arbitration, a model law has succeeded.
CONCLUSION
The speaker concluded by explaining that he does not think that international coordination among regulators always works. And mentioned that If it is central banks that coordinate, they have a like interest. But central banks would most likely not be in charge because the regulation of global stable coins would be bigger than them. He stated that many countries have a whole range of government entities that would be involved in supervision and there would be conflict among them. He however suggested that there should be some sort of international body that is tasked with trying to coordinate global stability and resolve conflicts on issues bordering on money laundering and terrorist financing.
EVENT TWO
INSPIRATION OR IMITATION? COPYRIGHTS AND MORAL RIGHTS IN ARTISTIC WORKS
4TH MAY, 2021
Claire Buckerfield was the moderator of the event. She welcomed everyone to the event and introduced the guest speaker; MetkaPotocnik. MetkaPotocnik is a lecturer at the Wolverhampton Law School specializing in intellectual property. Below is the summary of Potocnik’s presentation.
What is Copyright?
-Copyrights are exclusive rights that grant their proprietors monopolies i.e the rights to control the creative works.
-Copyrights are territorial rights, therefore there are no ‘global’ or ‘world’ copyright
-In the UK and in most countries, there is no requirement of registration.
-It is a property right and could be a valuable asset.
What does Copyright protect?
- Copyright protects literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, films, sound recordings, broadcasts.
What Rights are given by Copyright?
-Copyright refers to exclusive economic rights given to the proprietor and such rights includes reproduction (making copies), distribution, rental or lending, performance in public, communication to the public, adaptation.
- Copyright gives exclusive control to the owner, who may or may not be the author over the works themselves and prevents substantial copies in the original artistic works.
Inspiration or Imitation?
–The distinction is embedded in the idea/expression dichotomy. What copyright laws protect is the original expression of an idea and not the idea.
What are Moral Rights?
-The rights to be identified as the author or director.
-The right to object to derogatory treatment of the work (Integrity Right)
-The right to object to false attribution of the work
-The right to privacy in certain photographs and films.
EVENT THREE
IP AND STARTUPS: TAKING YOUR IDEAS TO MARKET
30TH APRIL, 2021
Panelists:
Davidson Oturu, Bada Akintunde-Johnson, Chidi Nwaogu and Kaffy Shafau- Ameh.
Moderator: Ifedy Eze
INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW
Davidson Oturu from Aelex Partners gave an introduction on what to expect from the webinar. He started out by pointing out the fact that there has been an increase in awareness and investments when it comes to startups in Nigeria. It then becomes necessary to ask if the Intellectual Property and ideas of those businesses are being adequately protected. He gave the example of Flutter wave Company that recently became a unicorn (valued over 1 billion dollars) and that what made them valuable was their IP and how aggressively they protected their IP.
He was of the opinion that failure to effectively protect a startup’s IP will eventually lead to the startup losing out, on the other hand, effective protection and awareness around IP can lead to massive growth and improvement. He explained the different types of IPs:
- Trademark- this is the identifier of the product which eventually translates into goodwill and then a brand. Trademarks can become so valuable that the rights of the trademark can be licensed and marketed to the public.
- Copyright- deals with literature, pictures and your description of your ideas.
- Patent- covers inventions, technological products, hardware etc.
- Trade secret- may not be registered to ensure the secrecy is not exposed. It is however still an IP that can be protected.
- Design- this is the uniqueness around your product, that makes it peculiar to your brand.
He concluded by saying that IPs can become so valuable that they can be leveraged as loan collateral.
PANELISTS DISCUSSIONS
According to Kaffy Shafau- Ameh, a Guinness World Record Holder, having conversations such as the present one on IP is of the utmost importance, taking into consideration the geometric rate at which dance has grown into a business as well as a vehicle for the entertainment industry. Having the conversation about IP becomes a no-brainer considering the amount of intellectual property, ideas, concepts, choreography that is in play. It is necessary for creatives to know their rights and the extent of ownership they have on such things.
She emphasized the need to clearly define the legal relationship between creatives and their clients, sentiments should not be involved. Creatives should scale the value of their brand (not necessarily monetary) and insist on getting value for them.
She concluded by saying that a line should be drawn between passion and business.
Bada Akintunde-Johnson, the country manager (Nigeria) at Viacom CBS, was of the opinion that there is a lot of negative impact caused by ignorance of intellectual property. This brings about the need to create a lot of awareness around intellectual property.
He described how in his capacity as the country manager, he has experienced the best and the worst of the intellectual property space. He discussed how some movie characters have become some of the most valuable IPs in the world. He described how PayTv services give access to their IPs to their subscribers thereby monetizing such IPs. On the other hand, some content creators pay a large sum to leverage on these same IPs. He concluded that the ability to monetize all the work done on business development and strategy is around the value of IPs.
Chidi Nwaogu, a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Publiseer, discussed the common mistakes and challenges of startups at the initial stage which include:
- Talent Acquisition- He was of opinion that the need to protect a startup’s IP and the fear of being ripped off by talent leads to erosion of trust, thereby making the founder of the startup take on more than they can handle (do the hard work themselves).
- External Funding- most people and firms that provide external funding want to have a measure of control over the management of the startups, which is most times not acceptable to the founder of the startup. This, therefore, leads to the founders going solo and getting overwhelmed.
He also discussed some of the things that people do unknowingly that are wrong and an infringement on the rights of the person with the IP. Downloading music off the internet, sharing music with others, playing loud music commercially, using people’s music for promotional purposes without authorization, etc. are some of these infringements.
CONCLUSION
The moderator concluded by saying that the need for awareness around intellectual property is not only to protect one’s personal intellectual property but also to protect oneself from infringing on other people’s intellectual property too.
