Metaverse-related litigation spans a wide range of practices, including IP, insurance recovery, and securities fraud. For example, trademark disputes resulting from the unauthorized use of names, logos, and other identifiers of merchants in the metaverse are becoming common.
Recently, a jury in the Southern District of New York reached a verdict finding Mason Rothschild liable for trademark infringement of the Hermes BIRKIN mark when Rothschild advertised and sold a series of “MetaBirkin” non-fungible tokens (NFT or NFTs). Hermes International SA v. Rothschild, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:22-cv-00384, verdict 2/8/23. The verdict required Mr. Rothschild pay $110,000 for trademark infringement and dilution, as well as $23,000 for cybersquatting on the MetaBirkins domain name.
