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Federal Jury Rejects First Amendment Defense In ‘MetaBirkins’ NFT Standoff

Leading the charge in thorny IP issues have been cases addressing whether NFT makers who utilize other parties’ trademarks can turn to the First Amendment as a defense to trademark infringement. This article analyzes the summary judgment decision that set the stage for trial in Hermes International, and provides some takeaways concerning the legal landscape for NFTs moving forward.

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Perhaps no other area in the technology sector — save perhaps the recent explosion of generative AI models — has raised as many thorny intellectual property issues as the proliferation of Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, many of which are based on, refer to, or even incorporate, expressive works. Leading the charge have been cases addressing whether NFT makers who utilize other parties’ trademarks can turn to the First Amendment as a defense to trademark infringement. This inquiry turns on the now decades-old test established by the Second Circuit in Rogers v. Grimaldi, 875 F.2d 994 (2d Cir. 1989). The Rogers test allows defendants to raise a free speech defense if their use of a mark is artistically relevant to their work and does not explicitly mislead consumers as to its source.

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