Hermès, the company behind designer handbag line Birkin, claims the creator of MetaBirkins NFTs infringed the company’s trademark. The company claims it did not authorize Mason Rothschild to commercialize its Birkin bag in the metaverse. To this end, the company claims the NFTs represent fake Hermès products.
A Hermès spokesperson said,
These NFTs infringe upon the intellectual property and trademark rights of Hermès and are an example of fake Hermès products in the metaverse.
A physical Birkin bag goes for anything between $9,000 and $500,000, with the Sac Bijou Birkin bag being the most expensive in the line after fetching $2 million in a Sotheby’s auction in 2012. On the other hand, the MetaBirkins NFT collection on OpenSea has grossed 246 ETH worth approximately $996,000 at the time of writing.
Hermès mulls taking legal action against Rothschild
According to Hermès, the issue with the MetaBirkins NFT collection is that it could dupe collectors into believing the collection of from Hermès when in the real sense it is not. The company also took note of the amount of money that the collection has netted, saying it is approximately 100 Birkin bags. To this end, Hermès is considering taking legal action against Rothschild.
Notably, MetaBirkins is the second Birkin bag-themed NFT collection by Rothschild, with his NFT being Baby Birkin.
The piece’s description reads,
In an ironic nod to the iconic Birkin Bag by Hermès, “Baby Birkin” is a 2000×2000 animation in 3D max, featuring a baby in all stages of a 40-week pregnancy in the transparent bag.
Counterfeiting continues plaguing the NFT space
In an interesting twist, Rothschild complained about someone stealing his designs and selling them. He said someone dropped several counterfeit NFTs before he dropped his collection. According to him, people purchased between $35,000 and $40,000 of the fake MetaBirkins.
This news comes as copyright infringement continues proving an issue in the NFT space. Before Hermès came after Rothschild, Miramax sued Quentin Tarantino, the director of Pulp Fiction, after he announced an NFT collection based on the 1994 film.
In the filing, Miramax alleged copyright infringements, trademark infringement, and unfair competition. The production company added that Tarantino was trying to cash in on the NFT boom by selling NFTs about the movie, although it owns and controls the rights to excerpts of any version of the screenplay to Pulp Fiction.
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