BAYC parent company Yuga Labs reaches settlement in trademark dispute with conceptual artist Ryder Ripps

ME News Report, April 9 (UTC+8), Bored Ape Yacht Club developer Yuga Labs reached a settlement with conceptual artist Ryder Ripps and his business partner Jeremy Cahen over a long-term trademark dispute. According to court documents, the parties have agreed on claims related to the case, with settlement details not yet disclosed. Ripps is officially prohibited from using Yuga Labs’ brand visual elements and trademarks in the future. Yuga sued Ripps and Cahen in 2022, accusing them of creating a so-called satirical clone project using the same images and ape characters from the original NFT series. Ripps argued that his RR/BAYC project constitutes “expressive appropriation art” protected by the First Amendment, but in 2023, a federal court ruled that the clone tokens could cause confusion in the NFT market, infringing on Yuga’s trademark rights, and ordered the two to pay nearly $9 million. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals later dismissed most of Ripps’ fair use arguments, overturning the penalty but affirming that NFTs are protected under trademark law. (Source: PANews)