The company behind the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection is suing a self-proclaimed "satirist" who made his own collection of Bored Ape clones as a stunt.
According to Decrypt, they're accusing Ripps of plagiarism.
The lawsuit reignites a familiar debate about ownership in the strange new world of NFTs and may offer new legal clarity for the relative vacuum that these projects and exchanges are currently operating within.
The company's suit says this is not just a business. These actions are calculated, intentional, and willful with the stated purpose of causing actual and monetary harm to Yuga Labs and to the holders of authentic Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.
In May, he started minting his own bored apes. According to previous reports, Yuga Labs slammed him with a DMCA takedown notice, but later withdrew it after he challenged it.
The strange role of marketplaces as defacto enforcers was highlighted by OpenSea when they took down the collection. According to Decrypt, Ripps was able to get away with over $3 million.
The collection was meant to reflect on the absurdity of owning exclusive rights to simple, easy to replicate JPEGs online.
"The craziest thing to me is that this company has made billions of dollars and has sold people on a complete lie, which is that they own commercial rights to these drawings," he said. They don't care who uses them, and won't lawsuit anyone.
The stakes have been raised with the new suit by Yuga Labs.
"We will continue to be transparent with our community as we fight these claims," Yuga Labs said in a statement. We have filed a lawsuit against the responsible parties in order to stop the illegal activity.
It's not clear whether the suit will go to trial. Legal precedent could be established by its outcome.
The Yuga Labs lawsuit accuses the Ryders of deceiving consumers.
A teen is selling action figures of Bored Apes to adult children.
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