The fashion house has filed a lawsuit against the creator of MetaBirkin, artist Mason Rothschild.
French luxury fashion house Hermes is trying to defend its Birkin product in court. The brand that produces some of the most expensive bags in the world is demanding a ban on the production and sale of MetaBirkin digital bags, pointing to the confusing similarity in names.
News outlets reported that Hermes filed a lawsuit in New York District Court, accusing NFT artist Mason Rothschild of copyright infringement. The artist became famous, among other things, thanks to the creation of digital bags under the MetaBirkin brand.
The fashion house believes that the author of NFT bags is using the popularity of the original brand for commercial purposes, and also notes the external resemblance of the digital product to real bags from Hermes. In the statement of claim, representatives of the brand demand the transfer of rights to the MetaBirkins.com domain, as well as the recovery of all proceeds from the sale of digital bags from the defendant.
“Hermes has not authorized or consented to the commercialization or creation of our Birkin bag by Mason Rothschild in the metaverse. These NFTs violate Hermès intellectual property and trademark rights and are an example of counterfeit Hermès products in the metaverse,” the company said.
Mason Rothschild launched the sale of MetaBirkin digital bags at the end of 2021. It is noteworthy that the virtual analogue of the famous model from Hermes turned out to be much more expensive than the original. One of the MetaBirkin bags was sold by the artist for $42,000, while the average cost of a real Birkin bag is about $10,000.
