By Nathan Ferguson
Yuga Labs, the developer of Bored Ape yacht Club (an NFT collection) has carried out a settlement in a lawsuit filed over a developer at the back of RR/BAYC (a copycat collection). On the 6th of this month, the NFT platform settled the respective lawsuit confronting Thomas Lehman (the person responsible for developing smart contracts and websites selling deceptive BAYC non-fungible tokens from Ryder Ripps (a digital artist).
Yuga Labs’ Trademark-Infringement Lawsuit Reaches a Settlement
This is considered a minor but likely significant triumph in the NFT firm’s latest lawsuit. The platform operating behind the blue-chip NFT series filed a lawsuit against Lehman in the previous month. The lawsuit accused Lehman of having engaged with as well as providing technical assistance for the NFT series that mimics Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).
As per the lawsuit, Lehman helped Jeremy Cahen and Ripps to develop as well as promote non-fungible tokens on social media. In 2022’s start, Ripps reportedly started circulating accusations that hidden racist and pro-Nazi imagery was contained by the BAYC collection. After that, in May of the same year, he traded a collection containing 10,000 Bored Ape non-fungible tokens. He claimed that the respective collection indicated the Nazi ties of Yuga.
It was noted in the lawsuit that this was a thoughtful endeavor to damage the reputation of Yuga Labs by creating confusion among the clients concerning the 2 NFT collections. As a part of the latest settlement, Lehman and Yuga Labs agreed on a constant injunction restricting Lehman from utilizing any confusingly analogous BAYC imagery or running any accounts on social media which imply a connection with the NFT platform, as per Law360.
Lehman disclosed in a statement that it was never his intent to damage the brand of Yuga Labs. Thus, he rejected the entirety of the disparaging statements regarding Yuga Labs as well as its founders. He also appreciated their several beneficial contributions to the world of non-fungible tokens.
A spokesperson from Yuga Labs stated that the company was delighted to discover that Lehman admitted the part he played in helping former cohorts, Jeremy Cahen and Ryder Ripps, to violate the trademarks of Yuga Labs in developing, promoting, as well as selling the forged NFTs. Nonetheless, there are some other ongoing lawsuits dealing with Ripps’ utilization of imagery taken from Yuga Labs’ BAYC collection.
In addition to this, a lawsuit has also been filed against Jeremy Cahen for copying as well as selling the forged products on the same forums as Yuga Labs. Cahen and Ripps were sued in 2022’s June by Yuga Labs. The NFT platform alleged that they were engaged in trolling Yuga Labs as well as scamming the clients into buying their copycats.
It was also mentioned in the complaint that Ripps generated above $5M performing pump and dump techniques for the forged NFTs. On the 30th of the previous month, Rosen (a law company devoted to the protection of investor rights) invited the investors that bought the BAYC NFTs of Yuga Labs or ApeCoin (the local token of the NFT platform) to become a part of the class-action suit to confront the company.
Yuga Labs Gets Sued by a Law Company Rosen for Infringement of Securities Laws
Yuga Labs was sued by Rosen back in 2022’s December for infringing the securities laws implemented in the jurisdiction of the United States. The lawsuit asserted that the NFT firm deceived the investors regarding the financial advantages of purchasing tokens and NFTs along with using celebrity promoters.