As more and more luxury fashion houses embrace NFTs, they are in usual style deploying their legal might to protect their brands in the Metaverse.
Hermès, the makers of the ultra-expensive Birkin bags, is suing an NFT creator for making pieces that resemble their iconic brand.
Creator Mason Rothschild revealed that the French luxury brand filed a lawsuit against him on Friday, for making NFTs in Birkin’s likeness.
“I’m not creating or selling fake Birkin bags. I’ve made art works that depict imaginary, fur-covered Birkin bags,” Mason argued on Instagram.
Hermès filed the lawsuit in New York’s Southern District Court, arguing that the NFTs infringe and dilute their trademark. They accuse Rothschild of ripping off the famous Birkin brand, by adding the pre-fix ‘meta’, calling them ‘metabirkins’.
The complaint is 47 pages long, and in it, Hermès accuses Rothschild of using “Hermès federally registered trademarks” to advertise the 100-piece digital collection without its permission.
Previously, the fashion house had sent Rothschild a ‘cease and desist’ letter, but that did not stop him from proceeding with the sale.
