A New York jury says that selling “MetaBirkins” non-fungible tokens violates the trademark of luxury brand Hermès. Bloomberg Law reported this morning on the outcome of the trial, a potentially landmark decision in the confusing world of NFT intellectual property. The jury awarded Hermès $133,000 and determined that the tokens aren’t First Amendment-protected speech, contrary to the argument of their creator, Mason Rothschild.
Hermès sued Rothschild over MetaBirkins in early 2022 during a boom in crypto-related projects. Like numerous other NFT projects, MetaBirkins paired unique digital tokens with themed pictures — in Rothschild’s case, 100 pictures of nonexistent Birkin luxury bags covered in faux fur. Rothschild argued in court that…