In today's WH Insights episode, Galyna Podoprikhina
(Associate WH Partners) talks about intellectual property rights
and NFTs.
Intellectual Property rights and NFTs are amongst the most
topical issues in the sector.
Minting an NFT for a digital asset containing art, music or
trademarks that creators do not own or have a valid licence to use,
could land them in serious legal trouble.
One of the headline-making examples of possible trademark
infringement involving NFTs is the Hermes vs Rothschild lawsuit.
Hermes claims that Rothschild's metabirkins infringe its
federally registered Birkin trademarks. Rothschild is
counter-arguing that their metabirkins are not commercialized
assets. He argues that they are speech, art and expression, the
freedom of which is protectable under the US law, where the case is
being heard.