The luxury fashion house Hermes International SA has recently filed a trade mark infringement claim in the US against a creator of NFTs.
NFTs or Non-fungible tokens are created digitally and sold, some having high values.
The NFT at issue here is the creation of digital copies of the famous Hermes Birkin Bag, called ‘MetaBurkins’. Hermes claim that no permission was granted, and they have been sold for over $1 million.
The NFTs were created by Mason Rothschild who tried to have the trade mark infringement claim thrown out. He claimed that the works were created to comment on Hermes work practices and therefore held protection under the First Amendment.
While no detailed reasons have been given yet, the judge in this case U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff rejected the motion to dismiss the claim.
This case is an exceptionally interesting one as it seems to be the first legal case that will set the tone for use of trade marks and IP within NFTs. We will bring you the updates as they happen.
