World’s First NFT Trademark Lawsuit Concludes in Favor of French Fashion Brand Hermès 

Hermès has won its yearlong lawsuit against Mason Rothschild over what it considered an infringement of its intellectual property.

In Jan. 2022, the French luxury brand, filed a lawsuit against Mason Rothschild, the digital artist who created the MetaBirkins non-fungible token (NFT) collection.

Rothschild created MetaBirkins, which depicted the brand’s Birkin bags, without the permission of the parent company, Hermès. It collected over 200 ETH during the sale. According to a Financial Times report, the French brand won the trial in New York on Wednesday, with Rothschild ordered to pay $133,000 in damages.

Source: OpenSea

Hermès’ Victory Bad News for Artists?

Rothschild’s lawyer argued that their client’s work should be protected under the right to artistic expression under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. They compared his art with Andy Warhol’s silk-screen prints of Campbell’s soup cans. 

Blake Gopnik, the author of Warhol’s biography, could have linked the similarities between the artworks. But, to Rothschild’s dismay, Gopnik could not attend the testimony.

Hermès’ lawyers claimed that Rothschild stole the goodwill of their “famous intellectual property to create and sell his own line of products.” They further pointed toward the similarity of the website URLs that might confuse the users.

Jonathan Harris, one of Rothschild’s lawyers, said: “The decision marked a good day for luxury brands and a bad day for artists.” It is worth noting that Rothschild didn’t create any tangible Birkin-type bags; he just took the bag as an inspiration and created digital art.

Luxury brands have been keeping an eye on this case since 2022. As a result, Rolex, Nike, and many other brands filed for trademarks to offer NFTs and metaverse services in 2022. 

Got something to say about Hermès vs. Rothschild lawsuit or anything else? Write to us or join the discussion on our Telegram channel. You can also catch us on Tik Tok, Facebook, or Twitter.

For BeInCrypto’s latest Bitcoin (BTC) analysis, click here.

Disclaimer

BeInCrypto has reached out to company or individual involved in the story to get an official statement about the recent developments, but it has yet to hear back.

Bookmark (0)

Related Posts

‘Withdrawals are coming!’ — Ethereum devs confirm epoch for Shapella fork

Shapella will take effect at epoch 194,048, which is scheduled for 10:27:35pm UTC on April 12.

Bookmark (0)

Time to buy ‘jpegs’? Community responds to upcoming Ethereum withdrawals

While many expressed serious sentiments, a Twitter user poked fun at the update, saying it’s time to spend ETH on nonfungible tokens.

Bookmark (0)

BitKeep completes compensation for $8M APK exploit, announces rebranding

BitKeep Wallet will now be known as Bitget Wallet following a $30 million investment from the namesake crypto derivatives exchange last week.

Bookmark (0)

SEC chief Gary Gensler to face Congress grilling over crypto policy

The chair of the Financial Services Committee said its primary focus would be setting the groundwork for crypto regulations in the United States.

Bookmark (0)

Banking Crisis Is a Wake-Up Call to Buy Bitcoin, Says Tim Draper

The banking crisis of early 2023 has been the largest since the financial meltdown of 2008.
Tim Draper, known for his well-placed investments in Coinbase, Twitch, Hotmail, Tesla, and Coinbase, sees a lesson in the crisis.
“I think the SVB failure was a wake-up call for the people who have been reluctant to buy Bitcoin,” Draper told BeInCrypto.

Bookmark (0)

Layer 2 Solutions for a Scalable Crypto Future

Understanding the scalability challenge facing traditional blockchain networks.
Exploring the benefits and functionality of Layer 2 solutions, such as Bitcoin’s Lightning Network and Ethereum’s Optimistic Rollups.
Learning about the challenges and opportunities for further Layer 2 solutions in the blockchain industry.

Bookmark (0)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *