Maria Samartseva, Counsel and Head of IP Litigation Practice at Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin & Partners law firm (RGD), took part in a conference on intellectual property organized by Pravo.ru.

During the event, special attention was paid to the companies that are making efforts to adapt to the new sanctions reality and often end up breaking established rules. The experts discussed the legislative initiatives and innovations in judicial practice and evaluated the efficiency of processes that companies have established to manage intellectual property in the current situation.

Maria gave a speech on the NFT disputes, analyzing judicial practice with a special focus on NFT regulation in other countries as well as areas where this technology is being used in line with the specific goals of process participants. She presented several well-known cases involving famous brands.

“NFTs can be viewed as completely different objects in legal terms. For example, NFT infringements may be ruled as intellectual property violations, such as brand parasitism or trademark infringement. This February, Hermès won a lawsuit against the artist Mason Rothschild in the NFT MetaBirkin case involving the eponymous bags. The actual NFTs were released back in 2021. As a result of this dispute, Hermès was awarded approximately $133,000 in damages,” said Maria Samartseva

Follow this link to view a detailed report in Russian.