Sports giant Nike has filed a lawsuit in New York against shopping platform StockX for creating and marketing digital property certificates (NFTs) based on the brand’s products.
Lawyers for the company accused US-based StockX of “coining” NFTs using Nike’s trademarks.
StockX is “selling these NFTs at greatly inflated prices to unsuspecting consumers who believe, or are likely to believe, that these ‘investable digital assets’ (as they are called by StockX) are, in fact, authorized by Nike, when they are not.” , says the lawsuit, filed on Thursday (3).
Nike claims damages and a court order to force StockX to stop sales.
Created just a year ago, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are increasingly becoming a mainstay of auction houses and the art market, with virtual works fetching million-dollar prices.
StockX, which buys and resells clothing and technology products, specializes primarily in sports shoe auctions. The sale of these objects can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars.
It now also offers NFTs with digital versions of objects whose ownership is traceable.
For example, an image of the “KAWS Sacai Nike Blazer Low Blue (Vault NFT)” sneaker is available on StockX for $549.
“Each Vault NFT is backed by a physical item in StockX custody,” the site states.
“This means that if you purchase an edition of Vault NFT, you own the corresponding physical asset that is protected and stored in the StockX vault,” the online page adds.
In its lawsuit, Nike describes NFTs as an “exciting way for brands to engage with their consumers in and out of the ‘metaverse'”.
However, “this new frontier has quickly become a virtual playing field for offenders to bypass some of the world’s most famous trademarks and use them without authorization to market their virtual goods and generate ill-gotten gains,” Nike added. .
According to the group, StockX has sold more than 550 Nike-branded NFTs.
When contacted by AFP, none of the two companies reacted to the contact.
In April, StockX was valued at US$3.8 billion (R$20.1 billion), after raising US$255 million (R$1.3 billion) in funds. The platform reported revenue of US$400 million (R$2.1 billion) in 2020.
Source: Folha
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