Yuga Labs Granted $1.6M in Lawsuit Against Ryder Ripps over NFT Copyright Dispute
Non-Fungible Token (NFT) artists Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen have been ordered by a US district court to pay Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creator Yuga Labs approximately $1.57 million in damages, bringing an end to a year-long copyright lawsuit. The judge also ruled that Yuga is entitled to attorneys’ fees and costs.
The legal battle began in June 2022 when Yuga filed a lawsuit against Ripps and Cahen for copyright infringement and cybersquatting related to the BAYC NFT collection. Yuga claimed that the defendants had violated copyright laws by creating and selling counterfeit versions of its BAYC NFTs.
The lawsuit specifically highlighted that the defendants aimed to devalue the Bored Ape NFTs by flooding the market with their own copycat NFT collection, using the original Bored Ape Yacht Club images and labeling them as “RR/BAYC” NFTs.
Additionally, the plaintiff accused the defendants of cybersquatting by registering domain names that were confusingly similar to the BAYC website and social media accounts.
The defendants’ lawyers argued that their use of the BAYC trademarks was satire and parody, rather than infringement.
After carefully considering the evidence, credibility of witnesses, and pretrial and post-trial filings, the court determined that the defendants had intentionally used Yuga’s BAYC trademarks with the intention of profiting from it. District Court Judge John Walter stated that it would be unfair for the defendants to profit from unlawful infringement.
As a result, the court ordered Ripps and Cahen to pay Yuga $1.37 million as disgorgement of their profits from selling the counterfeit NFTs. The court also awarded the plaintiff $200,000 in statutory damages for the cybersquatting violations.
Furthermore, the defendants have been instructed to transfer control of two domain names, two X (formerly Twitter) accounts, and a smart contract of the copycat NFTs to Yuga.
The remaining matters in the case pertain to the equitable remedies to be granted to Yuga.
Tags: NFTs
