Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creators Yuga Labs has scored a key win in its long-running court battle with Ryder Ripps, the co-creator of copycat NFT project RR/BAYC.
Yuga Labs initially filed a complaint against Ryder Ripps and co-founder Jeremy Cahen back in July 2022, alleging that the duo had engaged in trademark infringement, false advertising, and unfair competition, among other things.
In a pre-trial summary judgment ruling on April 21, a U.S. district court in central California found that Ripps and Cahen had infringed Yuga Lab’s trademarks with their RR/BAYC NFT collection.
The Court further ruled that Yuga Labs is entitled to an injunction and damages, the latter of which will be determined at trial.
In a message shared with Cointelegraph, a Yuga Labs spokesperson said:
“In a landmark legal victory for web3, a federal judge found that Ryder Ripps and Jermey Cahen infringed Yuga Lab’s intellectual property. This isn’t just a win for us, it’s a win for the entire web3 industry to hold scammers and counterfeiters accountable.”
Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen created the BAYC derivative NFT collection RR/BAYC back in May 2022 as a satire and protest against Yuga Labs. The project essentially uses all of the same imagery from the BAYC NFTs.
Ripps in particular, is behind a conspiracy theory in which he alleges that Yuga Labs purposely designed the BAYC NFT artwork to convey racist caricatures. Additionally, Ripps also asserts that the project’s logo and branding have several nods to certain Nazi symbology and language.
Mandala Metaverse to drop on Polkadot
Upcoming cross-chain augmented reality (AR) game Mandala Metaverse has chosen Polkadot parachain Astar Network to host its first major NFT drop on April 28.
Mandala Metaverse is a story-based project that has content spanning across TV, graphic novels, gaming and AR. Its gaming elements have been developed in Epic Game’s Triple-A quality Unreal Engine.
The drop is called the “Cryptonauts” and the NFTs depict different avatars that will serve as playable characters in the game. The artwork was illustrated by comic artist Bruce Zick, who has worked on projects for giants such as Disney and Marvel.
1/ Mandala Metaverse (@enterthemandala), a cross-platform game and interoperable metaverse, has chosen @AstarNetwork for its NFT drop, leveraging features that are available #OnlyOnPolkadot. pic.twitter.com/cnK3Zcf4AG
— Polkadot (@Polkadot) April 21,…
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