In this regular update, we round-up FinTech-related financial services regulatory developments for the week ending 2 December 2022. Read more

Herbert Smith Freehills Partner Simon Chapman KC, Senior Associate Charlie Morgan, Associate Olga Dementyeva and Trainee Solicitor Dan Huang have recently written an article for LexisPSL on the English Court’s decision in Soleymani v Nifty Gateway LLC (“Nifty”) (The Competition and Markets Authority intervening) [2022] EWCA Civ 1297. Read more

In this regular update, we round-up FinTech-related financial services regulatory developments for the week ending 4 November 2022. Read more

Hong Kong’s Fintech Week 2022 began with a crypto-infused bang with keynote speeches from the Government and financial regulators embracing the financial innovation made possible by virtual assets (VAs). Recognising that VAs are here to stay, Hong Kong has proposed to recalibrate the existing legal and regulatory regimes, with a focus on enabling greater access by retail investors to VA-related products and services while mitigating attendant risk. We also anticipate developments in the near future around the property rights of tokenised assets and stablecoins. Read more

In this regular update, we round-up FinTech-related financial services regulatory developments for the week ending 12 August 2022. Read more

The creation (“minting”) and sale and use of NFTs raises many IP issues which we have discussed in our previous posts in our IP in NFTs series. However, brand owners and product manufacturers must also be vigilant in monitoring the virtual marketplaces to ensure that third parties are not creating NFTs that infringe their own IP rights.  This is especially true where the company is considering releasing or has released NFTs, because the public will begin to associate the brand with NFTs (which could include infringing NFTs).  There are several strategies that companies could adopt to minimise this risk. Read more

Businesses involved in advertising cryptoassets and related products to a consumer audience should consider any exposure to consumer protection laws and advertising regulations. Read more

Creating an NFT can give rise to other IP issues, aside from questions of transfer of rights. In particular there is the issue of who in fact has the right to create and release NFTs and whether the NFT infringes third party rights.  In this third of our series of NFT IP blog posts, we deal with “minting”, ie the creation and sale of NFTs. Read more