Hermès wins the NFT Birkin bag fight, Meta wants to invite 13-year-olds, and Doritos launches a recording studio
Welcome to “This Week in the Metaverse,” where Fortune gathers the most interesting news in the world of NFTs, culture, and the metaverse. Email [email protected] with tips.
In a potential setback for the NFT space, French luxury brand Hermès prevailed in court over NFT creator Mason Rothschild and his Birkin bag-eque collection MetaBirkins. While Harlow tried to argue that his NFTs—which are similar to Hermès’ signature bag except with colorful fur instead of leather—were protected by the First Amendment, the jury disagreed.
MetaBirkins 78 just sold for 2.3 Ether (≈$4,000) to @wyaricky on @LooksRareNFT! pic.twitter.com/8RPLukg8WY
— MetaBirkins (@MetaBirkins) September 12, 2022
The nine-person jury in New York said the collection was more like a product subject to trademark law. As part of the terms, Hermès was awarded total damages, according to Bloomberg Law.
Still, Emily Poler, the founder of the New York law firm Poler Legal and a specialist in commercial disputes, said Rothschild’s intentions may not have been purely artistic.
When the judge in the case denied both parties’ motion for summary judgment, he presented statements in which Rothschild said “that you can get away with a lot in art by saying something is ‘like,'” Poler said.
“There were some indications that Mason Rothschild came up with the explanation for the MetaBirkins project after the project itself,” Poler said in an email. “If that’s the case, my guess is that it hurt his case. Another project without that origin might well have a different ending.”
Meanwhile, Rothschild took to Twitter to criticize the legal system and question what Hermès defines as a true artist.
“What happened today was wrong,” he wrote in a Tweet on Wednesday. “What happened today will continue to happen if we don’t keep fighting. This is far from over.”
Take nine people off the street right now and ask them to tell you what art is but the kicker is whatever they say will now become the undisputed truth. That’s what happened today.
A multibillion dollar luxury fashion house who says they “care” about art and artists but..
— Mason Rothschild 🫠 (@MasonRothschild) February 8, 2023
In other metaverse news, Meta plans to open its Horizon Worlds platform to teenagers as young as 13, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. The app is currently available to people 18 or older, but the Meta Quest VR headsets are aimed at children as young as 13, according to the Journal.
The move to include younger users is part of Meta’s “Horizon 2023 Goals and Strategy,” which also includes increasing the low 11% retention rate for the metaverse platform. These goals and strategies are key to growing the metaverse, which remains one of the company’s top priorities, Zuckerberg said on Meta’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
Despite beating analysts’ expectations for its most recent earnings, the company’s metaverse division reported a loss of $13.7 billion for the full year 2022, up from a loss of $10.2 billion for 2021.
In other news:
Doritos expands its Super Bowl LVII commercial, made in collaboration with rapper Jack Harlow, into the metaverse. Jack Harlow’s The Doritos Triangle Studio has been recreated inside the metaverse platform Decentraland, complete with triangle-mania wearables, musical triangles and BBQ Doritos chips that visitors can “talk” to while interacting with other fans. At Doritos Triangle Studios, fans can create and record custom beats using the unique sounds from the commercial, such as bag crunches, chip crunches and a musical triangle. Participants will be able to submit their beats for the chance to win a Blue-chip NFT, including digital collectibles from CloneX and Meebits worth over $20,000 in total.
From 13 February Paris Hilton will host a dating reality show in the metaverse, Deadline reported. Socialite’s 11:11 Media team launched the new experience, called Parislandwhere people can jump into the metaverse platform The sandbox for a month to choose wedding rings and outfits, rescue a castaway and flirt with five potential romantic partners before choosing their match.
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Learn more 👇https://t.co/CtjKKhD4yO pic.twitter.com/paH8tgq0Cz
— MoonPay (@moonpay) February 9, 2023
Web3 payment company Moonpay teamed up with NFT marketplace LooksRare to make paying for an NFT much easier. The partnership will allow Looks Weird customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies such as LOOKS, ETH and wETH through MoonPay. In the future, it will also allow customers to purchase NFTs on both the primary and secondary markets using credit cards.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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