The French fashion house Hermès won a rather significant lawsuit last week that could completely change the direction of artistic creation and trading in the metaverse. The luxury company recently filed a lawsuit against artist Mason Rotschild, who created an artistic collection of NFTs inspired by the iconic Birkin bags.
In the collection sold under the slogan ‘Not Your Mother’s Birkin‘, the artist redesigned as many as one hundred bags, and although they were virtual bags made of pixels rather than real leather or fur, they had a great reception among the audience, with one (we repeat, virtual) bag selling for as much as 42 thousand dollars. The artist aimed to highlight the fact that bags are made of real leather and that, with all the advancements in technology, there is no need for cruelty to animals. From the activist Meta Birkins bags, or the sale of NFTs, he earned an estimated 110 million dollars, and he owes Hermès a compensation of 133 thousand dollars.
Trademark infringement
Rotschild offered the bags on the NFT market Opensea, with a starting price of 0.1 ETH, which was worth 450 dollars at the time of launch. The French fashion giant was, of course, not thrilled with the artistic reinterpretation of its design, and even less with the artist’s entrepreneurial venture, so after warning him to remove the NFTs, they decided to sue him.
