NFT Copyright Case: Yuga Labs Awarded $1.6M in Lawsuit Against Ryder Ripps

In an end to a year-long copyright lawsuit, a US district court has ordered non-fungible token (NFT) artists Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen to pay Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creator Yuga Labs roughly $1.57 million in damages. The judge also ruled that Yuga is entitled to attorneys’ fees and costs.

The Genesis 

The case began in June 2022, when Yuga sued the duo for copyright infringement and cybersquatting related to the BAYC NFT collection. Yuga alleged that Ripps and Cahen had violated copyright laws by creating and selling copycat versions of its BAYC NFTs. 

The lawsuit specifically pointed out that the defendants sought to “devalue the Bored Ape NFTs by flooding the NFT market with [their] own copycat NFT collection using the original Bored Ape Yacht Club images and calling them “RR/BAYC” NFTs.”

Additionally, the plaintiff accused the defendants of cybersquatting by registering domain names that were confusingly similar to the BAYC website and social media accounts.

Lawyers for the defendants argued that using the BAYC trademarks was not infringement but “satire” and “parody.”

Court Rules in Favor of Yuga

After considering the evidence, credibility of witnesses, and pretrial and post-trial filings, the court found that the defendant’s use of Yuga’s BAYC trademarks was intentional and done with the expectation of profiting from that use. According to District Court Judge John Walter, it is unfair for defendants to profit from unlawful infringement.

Following the findings, the court awarded Yuga $1.37 million in disgorgement of Ripps and Cahen’s profits from selling the copycat NFTs. The court also awarded the plaintiff $200,000 in statutory damages for the cybersquatting violations.

The defendants have also been ordered to transfer control of two domain names, two X (formerly Twitter) accounts, and a smart contract of the copycat NFTs to Yuga.

The remaining issues in the case are equitable remedies to be awarded to Yuga.