White & Case advises on the lawsuit won by Mango for displaying works of art in the metaverse

White & Case, has advised Punto FA, the company that markets the well-known Spanish fashion brand Mango, in the dismissal of a lawsuit based on alleged infringements of the intellectual property rights of works of art created by well-known Spanish artists.

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

The litigation has been settled in a landmark ruling by Barcelona Commercial Court No. 9, which has resolved, for the first time in Spain, the issue of striking the right balance between the intellectual property rights of the original artists and the owner’s rights of transformation and innovation, including the right to create new works of art in the metaverse.

The derivative works were created in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and were displayed in the metaverse as part of the opening of Mango’s new flagship store on New York’s Fifth Avenue. The court decision also stands out for applying the U.S. fair use doctrine and recognizing its application in the Spanish legal system, following a previous ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court in April 2012 in which a company was successful on the basis of this doctrine. This judgment becomes part of the set of rulings that have developed this discipline at the international level.

In addition to the total dismissal of the claim, Vegap has been ordered to pay the procedural costs.

The White & Case team in Madrid that has represented Mango has been led by Francisco Málaga, litigation and arbitration partner, and local partner Marcos Soberón, with the collaboration of associates Eloy Algorri and Ainhoa Busto.