24, 2023: Following a conference with the court on Feb.
#HERMES BIRKIN BAG TRIAL#
Given the importance of the MetaBirkins case, we have put together a brief timeline of notable filings (complete with links to any corresponding articles) – and now, updates from the parties’ jury trial – in order to help you to stay abreast of developments …įeb. At the same time, the case has been cited in a number of the other web3-centric lawsuits that have proliferated since, such as the one that Yuga Labs has waged against Ryder Ripps and a separate case over a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT that landed before a court in Singapore. Since Hermès first filed suit in January 2022, the case has proven to be a closely-watched matter due to its status as one of the first lawsuits to center on the intersection of trademarks and NFTs and its focus on key questions, including the extent to which “real” world trademark rights extend to the virtual world. In light of Rothschild’s unwillingness to meet the demands set out by Hermès in its cease-and-desist (including pulling the NFTs from the market), the Birkin bag-maker filed suit against him in a New York federal court on January 14, accusing him of federal and common law trademark infringement, false designation of origin, trademark dilution, cybersquatting, and injury to business reputation and dilution under New York General Business Law, and seeking monetary damages, including the profits that he made in selling the NFTs, and injunctive relief to bar him from making further use of its trademarks. In the letter to Hermès, which Rothschild posted to the MetaBirkins Instagram account, he argued that the NFTs are shielded from Hermès’s trademark claims by “the First Amendment, gives me every right to create art based on my interpretations of the world around me.”Īfter initially positioning the NFTs as a “tribute” to Hermès’s most famous offering and “an experiment to see if could create that same kind of illusion that has in real life as a digital commodity,” Rothschild asserted that the MetaBirkins NFTs – the first of which sold on December 3 for $42,000 – act as “a commentary on fashion’s history of animal cruelty, and its current embrace of fur-free initiatives and alternative textiles.”
Hermès made headlines in December 2021 when an artist named Mason Rothschild revealed in an open letter that it had sent him a cease-and-desist letter, alleging that he was infringing its federally-registered trademarks by way of the sale of non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”) called MetaBirkins.
0 kommentar(er)
