The battle over digital Hermès bags

Hermès’ Birkin bags are some of the most coveted luxury goods in the world. Recently, they’ve also been transformed into popular NFTs—which is raising thorny legal questions about intellectual property rights and who really “owns” digital assets.

The Financial Times recently explored the case of Mason Rothschild, an artist who has made around $790,000 USD by selling MetaBirkins NFTs. Scam artists selling fake MetaBirkins have profited handsomely from selling their own versions of the assets. And meanwhile, Hermès is mulling legal action to protect “the tangible expression of handcrafted physical objects.”

It all adds up to a great big mess, as Nadya Ivanova (COO of L’Atelier BNP Paribas) told the Financial Times. “It’s up to individual consumers to check [the ownership history of an NFT], just as they would if they were buying a valuable physical asset.” See the full story to learn why that’s such a struggle (subscription required).