The business with so-called “non-fungible tokens” (NFTs) has developed into a million-dollar business in recent years. As a kind of digital token, NFTs are supposed to serve with regard to the ownership of their reference object. But how are they to be classified legally?
In the current issue of German journal “Computer und Recht” (CR), Dr. Viktoria Kraetzig gets to the bottom of this question. For this purpose, she analyses the civil law dogmatic classification of NFTs as signs and also asks to what extent their content can be protected on the basis of its meaning. Dr. Kraetzig acknowledges the protection of the meaning level of NFTs via special laws, but notes that their sign level has so far been a nullity in legal terms. Against the background of their versatile application possibilities and increasing importance, the author therefore pleads for swift action by the legislator to legally clothe NFTs.
