The creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Yuga Labs, have achieved a significant legal victory against Ryder Ripps, the co-creator of copycat NFT project RR/BAYC.
In July 2022, Yuga Labs initially filed a complaint against Ryder Ripps and co-founder Jeremy Cahen, alleging, among other things, trademark infringement, false advertising, and unjust competition.
In a pre-trial summary judgment ruling issued on April 21, a U.S. district court in central California determined that Ripps and Cahen’s RR/BAYC NFT collection infringed Yuga Lab’s trademarks.
In addition, the court ruled that Yuga Labs is entitled to an injunction and damages, which will be determined during the trial.
Yuga Labs spokesperson said: “In a landmark legal victory for web3, a federal judge found that Ryder Ripps and Jermey Cahen infringed Yuga Lab’s intellectual property. This isn’t just a win for us, it’s a win for the entire web3 industry to hold scammers and counterfeiters accountable.”
In May 2022, Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen launched the RR/BAYC NFT collection, a derivative of BAYC, as a form of protest and satire aimed at Yuga Labs. The project employs identical imagery to that of the BAYC NFTs.
Ripps is the main person behind a conspiracy theory that says Yuga Labs made the BAYC NFT artwork to show racist stereotypes on purpose. Ripps also says that the project’s logo and branding use words and symbols that are similar to those used by the Nazis.
Content Source: cointelegraph.com
