The company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs has filed a lawsuit against Ryder Ripps, a conceptual artist.
Ryder Ripps and a few of his friends are the targets of a lawsuit brought by Yuga Labs in the state of California. On June 24, the corporation used Twitter to discuss the case and claimed that the community’s support was “overwhelming”.
“We will continue to be transparent with our community as we fight these slanderous claims,” Yuga Labs said.
“In order to put a stop to the continuous infringement, and other illegal attempts to bring harm to us and the BAYC community, we have filed a lawsuit against the responsible parties. We will continue exploring and pursuing all legal options at our disposal.”
Ryder Ripps is charged by Yuga Labs for “seeking to devalue” authentic BAYC NFTs with a counterfeit collection dubbed RR/BAYC NFTs. In the complaint, it is alleged that authentic BAYC photos were utilised, and Ripps is charged with marketing the NFTs as genuine BAYC goods.
Additionally, Ripps’ “Ape Market” NFT marketplace reportedly made use of Yuga Labs’ trademarks. The lawsuit further claims that Ripps’ activities were a “deliberate effort to harm Yuga Labs at the expense of consumers” and that this is “no mere monkey business.”
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Ryder Ripps claimed that Yuga Labs’ trademarks had “Nazi ties” during the first week of February. In a Medium blog post, co-founder of Yuga Labs Gordon Goner addressed the accusations and emphasised how “insanely far-fetched” they are.
The blog post provides a comprehensive overview of the reasons why the BAYC designers selected apes, the sources of design inspiration for the BAYC logo, and the origin of the company name, Yuga Labs. In the case, Ripps and numerous accomplices are charged with “perpetuating a scam”.
Despite Ripps’s assertions that his actions are “satire”, Yuga Labs maintains that Ripps made millions of dollars from the RR/BAYC NFT collection. According to Yuga Labs, the company will continue to suffer from Ripps and the collection. Ripps keeps tweeting about the apparent relationship between particular symbols that Yuga Labs allegedly uses.
The creator of the RR/BAYC NFT collection also tweeted about the “terms people who purchased RR/BAYC’s agreed to.”