Quoted

January 29th, 2023

First NFT Trademark Trial Pits Hermès Against Metabirkin Artist

Blockchain Technology Co-Chair Jeremy S. Goldman is quoted in the article, “First NFT Trademark Trial Pits Hermès Against Metabirkin Artist” published by Bloomberg Law. The article discusses the French luxury brand Hermès International SA’s trademark trial against digital artist Mason Rothschild. Hermès is arguing that Rothschild violated trademark law by creating and selling “MetaBirkin” NFTs that depict digital images of the famous Birkin handbag. The trial is expected to test the boundaries of artistic expression and how nonfungible tokens are viewed in the eyes of decades-old intellectual property law. Jeremy is quoted saying, “Deciding whether an NFT project is protected art or if it is a digital knockoff subject to trademark law is no easy job. You could have a one-of-one, oil-on-canvas painting that gets sold in a gallery and no one would treat that as merchandise or as a consumer product. But if you take that same painting, and you put it on posters, and you sell 100 of them, then it starts to look more like a commercial product.”

Read the full article and Jeremy’s quotes here.