Can a DAO be held liable for infringement of intellectual property rights?
Select jurisdiction
France
1. A DAO, without legal capacity, cannot be held liable for infringement of IP rights.
2. If the members of a DAO have acted as partners and shareholders vis-à-vis to third parties, they may
each be held liable. This was the course taken by a judge in California where the members of a DAO
were considered as duly summoned by providing a copy of the summons to the OOAKI’s DAO chatbox.
« The motions are granted, and the Court orders that service of process on the OOKI DAO
may be made in this action by providing a copy of the summons and complaint through the
OOAKI DAO’s Help Chat Box, with contemporaneous notice by posting in the OOKI DAO’s
online forum »
Commodity Futures Trading Commission ./. OOKI DAO
No such decision has been taken by French courts to date.
