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An artist who sold non-fungible tokens featuring digital depictions of Birkin handbags has been ordered to pay $133,000 in damages to the brand\u2019s owner Herm\u00e8s, a victory for the French luxury group in a landmark case over how US intellectual property rights are applied to digital assets.<\/p>\n
A New York jury rendered the verdict on Wednesday following a week-long trial, in which lawyers for artist Mason Rothschild argued that he was commenting on alleged animal cruelty involved in the production of leather goods and should be protected by the right to artistic expression under the Constitution\u2019s First Amendment.<\/p>\n
Rothschild\u2019s defence team compared their client\u2019s work to that of pop artist Andy Warhol, who depicted Campbell\u2019s soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles \u201cin stylised but plainly recognisable form\u201d.<\/p>\n
However lawyers for Herm\u00e8s<\/a>, whose original physical Birkin bags range in price from $9,000 to $500,000, accused Rothschild of \u201cstealing the goodwill in Herm\u00e8s\u2019 famous intellectual property to create and sell his own line of products\u201d.<\/p>\n They argued that customers were likely to confuse Rothschild\u2019s \u201cMetaBirkin\u201d NFTs<\/a> with genuine Herm\u00e8s products, and that his website URL was too similar to that of the luxury goods company.<\/p>\n Rothschild created the digital art collection at issue in 2021. It contained 100 fluffy Birkin bags, covered in fur. The colourful designs came amid a surge in hype about NFT technology, when many leading designer brands were looking to make their own collections.<\/p>\n The collection fetched more than 200 ethereum (about $790,000 at the time) in sales. Herm\u00e8s complained and later sued, accusing the artist of infringing its trademark<\/a>.<\/p>\n After deliberating for more than two days, the jury awarded Herm\u00e8s $110,000 for intellectual property infringement and $23,000 for cyber squatting \u2014 using a domain name that is confusingly similar to one used by the Paris fashion house itself.<\/p>\n