Felicia J. Boyd

To plagiarize means to take someone else’s work and pass it off as your own. Plagiarism can be blatant copying of someone else’s work or slightly restating another’s work without original input or insight. Essentially, plagiarism is literary theft and an ethical and integrity issue for those accused of it, or doing it. Today, evidence of potential plagiarism appears commonplace in many aspects of life, whether it be education, journalism or the law, although it is deemed generally unacceptable. With the explosion of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) capabilities (such as ChatGPT) and its ability to produce text, video, images and other data, the use of GAI ironically endorses the wholesale copying of content to “inform” its analysis and task completion, while presenting itself as a useful tool to detect plagiarism by others.

Luxury design house Hermès International and Hermès of Paris, Inc. (Hermès) is known for designing, producing and marketing the iconic Birkin handbag. Since 1986, Hermès has sold over $1 billion worth of these handbags in the United States, with over $100 million dollars of sales in the past 10 years alone. With its distinctive appearance and high price tag, the Birkin bag is considered a symbol of wealth and exclusivity…. After hearing the evidence and arguments of both parties over the course of three days, the nine-person jury returned a verdict for Hermès on all its claims, awarding Hermès US$133,000 in total damages…. Moments before jury selection, the court granted Hermès’ motion to exclude the testimony of Rothschild’s “art expert,” Dr. Blake Gopnik. Rothschild had proffered Dr. Blake Gopnik as an expert to explain to the jury that Rothschild’s promotion and sale of the MetaBirkins NFTs was protected by the First Amendment as “business art” similar to that of Andy Warhol and his well-known soup can art.

There are not many trademark cases that are of equal interest to high fashion, the art world and cutting-edge tech. The ongoing “MetaBirkin” lawsuit is unusual, however, in that it involves a designer brand and two of the latest, trending topics – non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse. In a case that has bagged global attention, luxury design house Hermès is suing artist Mason Rothschild in New York for trademark infringement and dilution, misappropriation of its BIRKIN trademark, cybersquatting, false designation of origin and description, and injury to business reputation.