French fashion house Hermes filed a lawsuit in New York District Court in mid-January against NFT artist Mason Rothschild. He created and sells digital bags under the MetaBirkin brand, which is an obvious reference to the luxury bag brand Birkin. In addition, digital bags look very similar to Hermes products.
Mason Rothschild began selling his digital bags in December last year, and at a price significantly higher than the cost of Birkin bags. An NFT bag sold for $42,000 in December, while a physical original costs an average of $10,000 for a French company’s client.
The fashion house believes that Mason Rothschild violated the rights to the Birkin trademark, and is also asking the court to transfer the MetaBirkins.com domain to the French company and recover all proceeds from the sale of NFT bags from the trademark infringer.