It's like watching a game of monkey see, monkey sue! Judge Delivers Blow to Bored Ape Yacht Club Ripoff NFTs in Copyright Infringement Case
Yuga Labs, the team behind the wildly popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection, just won a legal battle in California against Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen, the duo behind the RR/BAYC NFT collection. It's like watching a game of monkey see, monkey sue!
The RR/BAYC NFT collection featured primates in similar poses to Bored Apes, and the marketing materials were practically copy-pasted from BAYC. While Ripps and Cahen claimed that their collection was a satirical and critical response to Yuga Labs, the court ruled that they were just causing confusion and raking in millions of unjust profits. Talk about monkey business!
The court found that Yuga Labs owns the BAYC trademarks, which are valid and enforceable. The defendants used the BAYC marks to sell RR/BAYC NFTs without Yuga Labs' consent and in a manner likely to cause confusion, making it easy to confuse buyers who just wanted to get their hands on a real BAYC NFT or track their value with token tracking tools. It's like trying to pick out a banana in a barrel of apples!
The court also determined that the domain names registered and utilized by the defendants - rrbayc.com and apemarket.com - had the potential to create confusion. The court concluded that the defendants were just trying to monkey around and profit off Yuga Labs' hard work, engaging in what's known as cybersquatting. Not cool, guys!
Although Yuga Labs had asked for $200,000 in statutory damages for the cybersquatting, the court dismissed this claim and declared that the determination of damages would be made during a pending trial. So it looks like this isn't the end of the banana peel just yet.
The court ruling is a win for Yuga Labs and a reminder to all NFT creators and sellers to respect the intellectual property rights of others. After all, imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but in the world of NFTs, it can also lead to a messy legal battle.