Dapper Labs Is As Much A Legal Innovator As A Technical One

Earlier today Fred Wilson wrote a blog post about Dapper Labs, its Flow blockchain, and NBA Top Shot product. His firm Union Square Ventures is a longtime investor in Dapper, and he's written about them and their products a number of times before.

Fred's post highlights that Dapper Labs has successfully innovated in a number of different areas. It has worked on core blockchain issues and launched a new blockchain, Flow, that is designed for increased scalability and reduced user fees. It has focused on user experience/design, and launched a new wallet intended to more easily onboard users to blockchain-based apps. And it's the leader in blockchain & crypto game design and mechanics, and has built far and away the most popular games in this space. But wait, there's more :).

Dapper's biggest innovation may be its its open approach to IP. Dapper has been markedly permissive with the content and intellectual property from its popular games. It has allowed CryptoKitties collectors and developers to build onto and extend that game. It even changed its terms-of-service to clarify developers' rights to use the CryptoKitties artwork, and had its CEO explain on Medium..

Dapper has also publicly advocated for its open approach to IP, and made much of its process and thinking open source and available for others to adopt. This includes carrying parts of its approach through in partnerships with other IP owners. For example, Dapper's Top Shot game allows users to commercialize (e.g., sell, trade) highlights from NBA games, which is an IP model that's quite different & much more open & permissive than how major sports leagues have traditionally operated (as I've discussed before here).

Dapper is now growing fast, and seems to be heading mainstream (or is already there). Its technical and user-experience innovations are gaining widespread recognition and adoption. Its legal innovations, namely its open approach to IP, may be just as important.

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