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Intellectual Property Technology Media and Telecom Trademarks

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

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. 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.

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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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