Following Pryor Cashman's victory on behalf of client Kevin McCoy, regarding his creation in 2014 of what is generally understood to be the world's first non-fungible token ("NFT"), the Art Law and Litigation team that secured the win has been featured in multiple news outlets:

  • The New York Times, in "Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Over Ownership of $1.47 Million NFT," quoted Partner William Charron, co-chair of the Art Law Group and a member of the Litigation, Intellectual Property, and Media + Entertainment Groups, saying, "The significance of this case is that it prevented a party from using somewhat obscure blockchain usage rules to appropriate the work-product of an artist."
  • Law360, in "Ownership Claim Over NFT Sotheby's Sold For $1.5M Tossed," also cited Bill: "Kevin pioneered how the blockchain can be used to help confirm and authenticate art ownership. The plaintiff had absolutely nothing to do with Kevin's work."
  • The New York Law Journal article, "Judge Rules in Favor of Artist in Lawsuit Involving 'First NFT Ever Created,'" drew from the team's court filing, which argued that the plaintiff's 2021 NFT is different from McCoy's 2014 NFT, and that "Plaintiff is, in truth, asking the Court to endorse an attempted forgery or piracy of the 2014 NFT," adding a statement from Bill that "Plaintiff's attempt to twist the meaning of a blockchain to make it appear like they somehow owned Kevin's NFT was nothing more than sleight-of-hand, and was correctly rejected. We think this ruling makes for good, sound precedent."
  • Artnet News, in "A U.S. Court Has Handed a Legal Victory to Digital Artist Kevin McCoy in an Ownership Challenge Over the First-Ever NFT," noted that U.S. Magistrate Judge James L. Cott, who oversaw the trial, wrote in his decision, "Free Holdings has demonstrated nothing more than an attempt to exploit open questions of ownership in the still-developing NFT field to lay claim to the profits of a legitimate artist and creator. It does not allege that it took any part in the creation of Quantum or the blockchains used to record it. Free Holdings has thus failed to plausibly allege that unjust enrichment occurred in these circumstances."
  • The Art Newspaper, in "New York court dismisses case over ownership of 'world's first NFT' sold for $1.5m at Sotheby's," points out that the matter is "one of the first legal cases in the US to test how blockchain technology applies to artists' rights."

The team behind this precedent-setting case was led by Bill, with assistance from Partners Robert deBrauwere and Megan Noh (who co-chairs the Art Law practice with a focus on NFT issues), and Litigation Associates Nicholas Saady and Maya Katalan.

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Pryor Cashman Wins Dismissal of Case Regarding World's First NFT

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