{"id":4460,"date":"2022-02-13T23:44:53","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T04:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/?p=4460"},"modified":"2022-02-13T23:54:59","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T04:54:59","slug":"does-hermes-have-a-case-against-metabirkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/2022\/02\/13\/does-hermes-have-a-case-against-metabirkins\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Herm\u00e8s Have a Case Against MetaBirkins?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rua Dinm<\/strong>
\nCo-Editor-In-Chief<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

If someone were to buy an Herm\u00e8s Birkin bag, their total at the register would cost them around $10,000 U.S.D. However, whoever purchased a \u201cMeta Birkin\u201d non-fungible token or NFT, by Mason Rothschild bought them for $47,000 U.S.D. or 10 Ethereum. That is more than the lowest-priced Birkin bag. These \u201cMetaBirkin\u201d NFTs generated around $800,000 U.S.D. in trading on OpenSea. To be clear, these \u201cMetaBirkin\u201d NFTs are not associated with the world-renowned fashion house. The creator of the NFT bags himself clarifies this as he addresses that he is not intimidated by Herm\u00e8s because he is not selling fake Birkin bags. He claims the First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech and his ability to express. To him, these bags are a \u201cplayful abstraction of an existing fashion-culture landmark.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
MetaBirkens by Mason Rothschild (Photo courtesy of Mason Rothschild)<\/i><\/b><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Herm\u00e8s simply is not buying Mark Rothschild\u2019s argument and has decided to sue the creator<\/a> with allegations of, \u201ctrademark infringement and dilutive use of its iconic Birkin name.\u201d They submitted a complaint and called Rothschild a, \u201cdigital speculator who is seeking to get rich quick.\u201d As NFTs and the metaverse becomes the new craze of Web 3.0, the existence of this dilemma raised many questions about intellectual property trademark protection and commercial activities in the digital fashion industry. The platform in which these NFTs were mainly sold, OpenSea, removed the digital Birkins. Although, Rothschild is continuing to market his art in available exchanges. To this, Herm\u00e8s points out that this does not give him the license to use the famous Birkin trademark. \u201cThe label claims Rothschild infringed on and diluted Herm\u00e8s\u2019 trademark, and that consumers might be confused into thinking Herm\u00e8s has some association with the MetaBirkins.\u201d The brands want the court to surrender his domain and pay damages, including profits from selling the digital assets.<\/p>\n

Although this seems like a simple case at first glance, the issue is a bit more complicated than everyone expected at face value. Herm\u00e8s is not the only luxury or fashion brand to have a case like this. As a leading company in fashion innovation, creativity, and technology, Nike entered the NFT and metaverse realm by purchasing RTFKT Studios, making shoes for the metaverse. StockX made a similar decision as Mark Rothschild, which resulted in Nike suing the Detroit-based sneakers and apparel brand. However, legal experts point out that an NFT is a blockchain entry pointing to a digital asset. These assets, such as images, reside on a separate server. Essentially, an NFT is a receipt proving ownership rather than the image itself. Primavera De Filippi, co-author of \u201cBlockchain and the Law\u201d and a researcher at the National Centre of Scientific Research in Paris and Harvard\u2019s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society explained that, \u201cFrom a, strictly speaking, I.P. perspective, I don\u2019t think there is much leverage.\u201d Whatever the outcome of the case, these NFTs will continue to exist in the blockchain and possibly increase in value with an ongoing legal battle. Regardless, the decisions for both of these cases will set an important precedent for both NFT creators and the fashion industry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact Rua at rua.dinm@student.shu.edu<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If someone were to buy an Herm\u00e8s Birkin bag, their total at the register would cost them around $10,000 U.S.D. However, whoever purchased a \u201cMeta Birkin\u201d non-fungible token or NFT, by Mason Rothschild bought them for $47,000 U.S.D. or 10 Ethereum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4871,"featured_media":4461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[870,2],"tags":[1068,1109,190,562,1136,1135],"class_list":["post-4460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-fashion","category-trending","tag-1068","tag-crypto","tag-fashion","tag-february","tag-hermes","tag-nft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4871"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4460"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4561,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460\/revisions\/4561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}