BAYC’s Yuga Labs Files Lawsuit Against RR/BAYC Creator Ryder Ripps

Yuga Labs, the NFT company behind BAYC and MAYC, has filed a suit against American conceptual artist and creator of NFT collection RR/BAYC, Ryder Ripps, and his partner Jeremy Cahen. Yuga Labs claims the creative director is “scamming consumers by misusing Yuga Labs’ trademarks.”

Yuga Labs accuses Ryder Ripps of intentional copyright infringements

In the lawsuit filed on June 25, Yuga Labs pointed out Ripps’ deliberate attempts at making a caricature of the uniqueness of the BAYC collections by knowingly creating copycat NFTs using the exact same trademarks and marketing them to the general public.

Going further, Yuga noted that these copyright infringements are “not accidental”, but rather “calculated, intentional, and willful with the stated purpose of causing actual and monetary harm to Yuga Labs and to the holders of authentic Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.” The firm seeks a jury trial.

Jeremy Cahen (@Pauly0x) is convinced the judgment will be in their favor. Taking to Twitter, he noted that his conviction has never been higher, assuring his fans of victory and that such victory “will be a landmark one for all digital creatives.”

Ryder Ripps has for some time now gone on a campaign to prove the point that BAYC NFTs are not as unique as they are portrayed and could be used by anyone without any serious copyright consequences. To prove his point, Ripps has been re-minting BAYC NFTs, listing them on NFT platform Foundation under his collection “RR/BAYC.”

Yuga Labs had issued a DMCA takedown order to the artist but later revoked it when Ripps disputed it. With these results, Ripps had so far shown that no serious legal consequences could befall anyone who makes identical Apes, indicating that Yuga Labs isn’t putting in enough effort to protect legitimate Bored Ape owners – well, until now.

Ripps also fueled the idea that the BAYC collections were racist and “super-secret Nazis”. In response, Yuga Labs co-founder Gordon Goner (real name, Wylie Aronow) noted that the allegations were completely farfetched and they had so far not paid much attention to it because of its ridiculousness.

Goner, however, declared that it was time to put an end to the claims after it appears to have gained traction, and a respected podcaster was noticed to have taken up the story.