Yuga Labs files lawsuit against Ryder Ripps over RR/BAYC NFTs

Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection, has sued Ryder Ripps, a conceptual artist, for selling duplicates of the NFT collection. The lawsuit has been filed in a California court. The lawsuit says Ripps has a “calculated, intentional, and willful” plan to destroy what Yuga Labs has built.

Yuga Labs sues artist for duplicating its NFTs

This is not the first time BAYC and Ripps have been at loggerheads. The conflict between the two parties mainly stems from the RR/BAYC NFT series by Ripps. This series uses images from the BAYC NFT collection but links them to another token. Ripps’ collection is cheap because one-piece trades for around $200.

The lawsuit reads, “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.”

According to this lawsuit, Ripps was involved in false promotions and trademark infringement. Yuga Labs also accuses Ripps of a wide range of other offenses. It is requesting payment of financial damages and a court order asking that Ripps ceases to infringe on the work created by BAYC. It also imposes a ban on Ripps’ use of domains that could be mistaken for BAYC.

Ripps’ involvement in NFTs

Regarding this project, Ripps said he was merely “exploring the power of NFTs to change meaning, establish provenance, and evade censorship.” He also said that the buyers of the RR/BAYC project were made aware that they were not buying the official BAYC. Ripps has worked with other NFT projects, such as selling alternative versions of the CryptoPunk.

On the other hand, Yuga Labs has said that Ripps’ work is a part of his vendetta against the project. Ripps has previously accused the BAYC project of being racist and using white supremacist symbols and words. He also argues that the decision to create humanoid apes was part of a racist tradition.