Yuga Labs Slaps an LA-based Artist with Lawsuit for Duplicating Bored Apes

Yuga Labs Inc. recently filed a lawsuit against a Los Angeles-based artist for selling duplicates of its Bored Apes NFTs. The blockchain company implicated Ryder Ripps in a “calculated, intentional, and willful” plot to confuse users while generating “ill-gotten profit” from the sales. Ripps, on the other hand, views his work as “performance art,” noting that he merely “recontextualized” the NFTs.

The artist launched his own RR/BAYC NFT collection earlier in May as a form of protest against and parody of BAYC. These duplicate NFTs are significantly cheaper compared to the original collection. Ripps sells his tokens for approximately $200 apiece compared to the genuine Bored Apes which start at around $100,000.

The website for the knockoffs elaborated that it “uses satire and appropriation to protest and educate people regarding The Bored Ape Yacht Club and the framework of NFTs.” To which Yuga Labs responded that “copying is not satire, it is theft,” in its lawsuit. “This is no mere monkey business. It is a deliberate effort to harm Yuga Labs at the expense of consumers by sowing confusion about whether these RR/BAYC NFTs are in some way sponsored, affiliated, or connected to Yuga Labs’ official Bored Ape Yacht Club,” the complaint further.

Yuga Labs has since sued Ripps for a number of offenses. These include trademark infringement, false advertising, unfair competition, and cybersquatting. Apart from the copycat collection, Ripps also created a duplicate of the Bored Ape Yacht Club Twitter account. The blockchain company is seeking financial damages caused by the collection along with a court order to block Ripps from infringing on BAYC’s work.

“The lawsuit grossly mischaracterizes the RR/BAYC project,” explained Ripps in a recent tweet, noting that buyers were informed that his tokens weren’t official BAYC NFTs. The LA-based artist has done similar initiatives in the past. In July 2021, Ripps copied CryptoPunk NFTs while integrating slight modifications to ridicule the collection. Nonetheless, the outcome of this particular issue will heavily influence how copyright law will be applied to crypto art down the line.

Sources: Reuters, The Verge