NFT
Luxury fashion brand Hermès is asking a federal court to block sales of non-fungible tokens based on its popular Birkin bag, according to Reuters.
Last month, a New York jury ruled digital artist Mason Rothschild had violated Hermès’s intellectual property rights by promoting and selling his “MetaBirkin” NFTs based on the Birkin bags. Rothschild was ordered to pay $133,000 in damages.
Hermès alleges in its filing that Rothschild has continued to promote the NFTs despite the ruling, Reuters said. The fashion company wants the federal court to intervene and force Rothschild to not only stop selling the digital assets but also transfer the NFTs he still owns to Hermès.
The court’s February ruling in favor of Hermès has been considered significant and potentially precedent-setting as whether or not NFTs are art or commodities has been brought into question. As was the case with MetaBirkins, other artistic NFT collections have borrowed elements of existing intellectual property.
Rothschild’s lawyer plans to oppose Hermes’s filing this week, said Reuters.
