French luxury brand Hermès sues artist Winning The man who painted the famous Birkin bag in the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) collection. The artist argued that NFTs should be included in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but the jury disagreed.
Hermes wins lawsuit against creator of ‘Metabirkins’ NFT
French luxury design firm Hermes sells ‘Metabirkins’ non-fungible token (NFT) Hermes’ popular Birkin bag. A digital collection.
Rothschild has created his Metabirkins NFT collection in 2021. It describes it as “a collection of 100 unique his NFTs created using faux fur in a variety of contemporary color and graphic runs.” This collection has sold over his 200ETH, worth him $331,684 at the time of writing. Earlier last year, Hermès sued the artist for trademark infringement.
Rothschild argued that NFTs should be covered by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The artist’s defense team compared his work to that of Andy Warhol, who depicted Campbell’s soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles in the artwork. Rothschild argued in court:
These images, and his NFTs authenticating them, are not handbags. they only have meaning.
Hermes’ attorneys accused the Rothschilds of “stealing the bona fides of Hermes’ well-known intellectual property to create and market their own line of products.” They argued that customers were likely to confuse his Metabirkins NFTs with genuine Hermes products, and they further said that Metabirkins URLs were too similar to URLs used by luxury brands. said. “The reason for these sales was the Birkin name,” Oren Warszawski, a lawyer representing Hermès, told the court.
After two days of deliberation, a New York jury on Wednesday returned verdicts on “holding defendants liable for trademark infringement” and “trademark dilution.” Further, they found that “First Amendment protections do not preclude liability.” A jury then ordered Hermes to pay him $133,000 in damages. Trademark infringement cost him $110,000 and cybersquatting cost him $23,000.
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