Yuga Labs’ Lawsuit Against Bored Ape Could Have Far-Reaching Implications

A federal judge has ruled that the co-founders of Yuga Labs, the company behind the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, must face deposition in the company’s ongoing trademark infringement lawsuit against conceptual artist Ryder Ripps.

This ruling comes as a continuation of a legal battle between Yuga Labs and Ripps which began in early 2022, when Ripps alleged that the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs contained latent, intentional racist and pro-Nazi imagery.

In May, Ripps then sold a copycat collection of 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs, stating that the collection highlighted Yuga’s supposed Nazi ties and raising legal questions related to the reproducibility of NFTs.

Yuga Labs sued Ripps for trademark infringement, not for copyright infringement or defamation.

The goal of this strategy is to prevent Ripps from turning the case into a referendum on the duplicability of NFTs or a showcase for his inflammatory allegations.