Creators of "fake" BAYC tokens will pay $1.6 million to Yuga Labs

[Carding 4 Carders]

A U.S. district Court has ordered artist Ryder Ripps and NFT marketplace Not Larva Labs founder Jeremy Caen to pay Yuga Labs about $1.575 million in compensation for creating "fake" BAYC tokens.

In June 2022, the company behind it accused Ripps and Caen of issuing and selling copied NFTs called RR/BAYC that "devalue" the original works.

In October, the defendants filed petitions to dismiss Yuga Labs claims, but the court rejected these claims.

"This case is dramatically different from most trademark infringement cases, as it involves defendants who use satire and parody to justify using the trademark BAYC without the company's consent," the ruling said.

The judge noted that the defendants "obstructed and were evasive" during their testimony.

The refund includes $ 1,366 million in initial sales revenue and $117,309 in royalties.

Respondents will receive deductions because they need to hand over a smart contract that manages $106,055 worth of non-minted NFTs. They will also be forgiven $108,037 due to payments to other business partners.

Ripps and Kaen will transfer control of the affiliated web domains to Yuga Labs. In addition, both were banned from selling products under the Bored Ape brand.

Recall that in January 2022, Ripps published an article in which he called the BAYC collection "racist" and accused its creators of using Nazi symbols. For example, he noted that the line's logo looks like a "Death's Head".

 

[Teacher]

Yuga Labs has asked the court to hold accountable artist Ryder Ripps, who created an alternative collection of BAYC tokens, for deliberately destroying the private keys from his wallet.

Yuga Labs claims that artist Ryder Ripps intentionally destroyed the private keys to the addresses where Ryder Ripps BAYC collectible tokens (RR/BAYC) are stored in order to prevent the enforcement of the injunction. Earlier, Yuga Labs accused the artist and his partner Jeremy Cahen of faking "Bored Ape Yacht Club" (BAYC). In February 2024, the California District Court issued a final ruling in favor of Yuga Labs, ordering Ripps to burn all remaining RR/BAYC NFTs or turn them over to Yuga for destruction within two weeks.

However, the defendants asked the court to reject Yuga Labs request for sanctions. Ripps defense claims that he fully complied with the court order, with the exception of orders to destroy or transfer RR/BAYC tokens. On February 21, Ripps revealed that it had destroyed these private keys back in December last year. The artist explained his actions by saying that he wanted to prevent any unintentional use of the wallet. However, this may be considered a violation of the injunction.

"Given that Ripps maliciously destroyed private keys, he tried to mislead the justice system. Therefore, the court should exercise its authority to hold Ripps accountable for ignoring the ruling. The usual deletion of private keys only means that Ripps will no longer be able to access copyright-infringing tokens. It turns out that he still owns these NFTs, and they are related to him," the Yuga Labs lawsuit states.

The company added that Ripps can restore access to their NFTs if they have physical or digital backups of the keys. Yuga Labs also questioned Ripps claims, claiming that he continued to use one or more addresses associated with RR/BAYC after the October injunction.