The Metaverse Standards Forum (MSF) was announced on June 21, 2022. The MSF aims to “foster interoperability standards for an open metaverse”, and its existence could accelerate the development of metaverse technologies. This post will provide an overview of Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) and how technologies advance through cooperation between competitors. It will also explore how and why MSF seeks to differentiate itself from SDOs, including with respect to intellectual property.

(For those interested in what the metaverse is, check out our previous Holland & Knight posts: The Metaverse: Building a Fairer World in Virtual Reality and The Metaverse: Patent Infringement in Virtual Worlds.)

I. What are SDOs?

SDOs are collaborations between competing entities…