Yuga Labs, the company that runs the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project, has reached a settlement with Thomas Lehman, who built websites and smart contracts for Ryder Ripp’s copycat project “RR/BAYC.” Ripps’ project is a set of 10,000 non-fungible tokens (NFT) that have the same names, features, and character traits as the well-known Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. This is part of a separate, ongoing court case about trademark infringement.
The complaint against Thomas Lehman was filed on January 20, 2023. It was about his role in coding and making the “RRBAYC RSVP Contract” and “rrbayc.com” site to sell the copycat NFTs. The terms of the settlement say that Lehman can’t use “any BAYC Mark” in any way, that he has to destroy “any materials in his possession or control that publicly display the BAYC Marks,” and that he has to burn any RR/BAYC NFTs he owns.
“I am happy to have resolved the Yuga Labs, Inc. v. Lehman trademark lawsuit in the [U.S. District Court] Northern District of New York,” Lehman said in a statement provided to CoinDesk. “It was never my intention to harm Yuga Labs’ brand, and I reject all disparaging statements made about Yuga Labs and its founders and appreciate their many positive contributions to the NFT space.”
A Yuga Labs spokesperson told CoinDesk that they “are pleased that Mr. Lehman acknowledged his role in assisting former cohorts, Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen, to infringe on Yuga Labs’ trademarks in developing, marketing and selling counterfeit NFTs.”
Yuga Labs is now involved in a lawsuit with Ryder Ripps over his product, which Yuga believes is a clear instance of intellectual property (IP) infringement. Ripps filed an anti-SLAPP motion in October 2022, arguing that his project is protected by free expression as a satire. The request was refused in December 2022; however, Ripps’ team challenged the decision and filed counterclaims against Yuga Labs.
IP and trademark rights have become more important in the NFT space because of the ongoing case. Yuga Labs told CoinDesk it believes “that creators, especially those in the nascent Web3 space, must be able to rely on the law to protect their work against IP theft.”
Content Source: CoinDesk.com
