A blockchain product is usually described in terms of what it decentralises, but the parts carrying commercial and legal weight are conventional: source code, a brand, documentation, interface design, and the personal information a platform collects in order to operate. Each is owned by someone, and in projects built quickly by distributed contributors the record of who owns what is often thin.
We advise founders and businesses on securing the intellectual property in that stack, copyright in code and written material under the Copyright Act 2059, trademark protection for platform and product names through registration with the Department of Industry, and confidentiality terms for whatever is not published, and on the contributor, developer and contractor agreements that decide whether the project entity actually holds those rights. Where a platform collects or processes personal information, we advise on obligations under the Individual Privacy Act 2075 and on the electronic record and transaction questions arising under the Electronic Transactions Act 2063.
Because regulatory treatment of digital assets continues to develop, we advise on the position as it stands rather than as a settled framework, and structure the ownership and contractual layer so it holds regardless of how the wider picture moves. This work sits alongside our copyright, technology and trade secret practices.