Hermès just sued this digital artist over his MetaBirkin NFTs – Mason Rothschild previously worked at Christian Dior and Saint Laurent and his case sparks debate on luxury brands in the metaverse

Feb 3 , 2023

Six of the fluffy MetaBirkins created by artist Mason Rothschild – who is in hot water with Hermès, who do not approve. Photo: Instagram

LA based digital artist Mason Rothschild created a series of NFTs depicting Hermès’ rare Birkin bags – now the French luxury brand is suing him for trademark infringement

Rothschild, who previously ran trendy concept store Terminal 27 and worked for Dior, was compared to Andy Warhol by his lawyer, who drew parallels with the artist’s Campbell soup and Coca-Cola works

Trademark infringement has extended to the metaverse, with luxury brand Hermès battling digital artist Mason Rothschild in court over the creation and sale of non-fungible tokens that depict images resembling its hard-to-get Birkin bags.

A pre-owned Hermès Birkin bag available from Farfetch. Photo: Handout

A trial over the alleged infringement of Hermès’ intellectual property began in Manhattan federal court this week, with the multibillion-dollar corporation claiming the name of the NFTs – MetaBirkin – misled consumers into incorrectly believing they were affiliated with Hermès.

Sales of Hermès bags were about US$100 million a year over the last decade, according to the brand. Photo: Shutterstock

“Hermès brought the lawsuit because they thought it infringed and thought people would wrongly think Hermès was involved,” Oren Warshavsky told the jury in his opening statement. The sticky situation is made stickier because the company apparently has plans to join the metaverse as well, Warshavsky revealed.

It’s the first case involving trademark infringement to NFTs – digital assets that are bought and sold with blockchain technology – to go to trial.

Each Hermès Birkin is crafted by one person and takes 18 to 24 hours to make. Photo: Getty Images

Quentin Tarantino and Miramax LLC settled their dispute over whether the film director could sell NFTs depicting his screenplay for the award-winning film Pulp Fiction before their case made it to trial.

The Hermès dispute also pits artists’ First Amendment rights against company intellectual property claims.

Hermès has claimed that Mason Rothschild’s “MetaBirkins” NFTs may mislead consumers, as the tokens are not actually affiliated with the luxury house. Photo: @masonrothschild/Instagram

Rothschild’s lawyer, Rhett Millsaps, told the jury that as long as the product is artistically relevant and doesn’t explicitly mislead consumers, then it’s protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of expression.