Ryder Ripps responds to denial of motion to dismiss BAYC trademark lawsuit

Conceptual creator Ryder Ripps tweeted his effect and counterclaims to the suit filed against him, and chap suspect Jeremy Cahen, implicit trademark infringement of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) brand.

Ripps highlighted aggregate defenses, including “1st amendment extortion to unclean hands,” and a rehashing of allegations the BAYC postulation is modeled connected Nazi symbolism.

BAYC vs. RR/BAYC

On June 24, BAYC creators Yuga Labs filed a suit against the defendants citing respective allegations, including the mendacious designation of origin, mendacious advertising, cybersquatting, and trademark infringement.

The claims halfway astir the RR/BAYC NFT collection, which seemingly features identical imagery to the archetypal BAYC NFT collection. RR/BAYC was created by Ripps weeks earlier Yuga Labs filed the lawsuit.

At the time, Ripps said his RR/BAYC postulation acceptable astir challenging notions of intelligence spot arsenic it applies to integer artwork. More so, sparking statement around  “the quality of NFT, provenance and integer ownership,” to which provenance is simply a defining facet of creation valuation, portion besides helping to deduce meaning successful the artistry itself.

On Dec. 16, Judge John F. Walter, of the District Court of Central California, portion denied and portion granted an anti-SLAPP question to onslaught and question to dismiss, initially filed by Ripps and Cahan connected Oct. 3.

Judge Walter denied each aspects of the defendants’ filing, but the question to disregard successful narration to the eighth origin of enactment – unjust enrichment.

The lawsuit had 11 causes of enactment successful total, those being false designation of origin, mendacious advertising, cybersquatting, communal instrumentality trademark infringement, common instrumentality unfair competition, unfair competition, false advertising, unjust enrichment, intentional interference with prospective economical advantage, and negligent interference with prospective economical advantage. Meaning Ripps and Cahan are inactive connected the hook for the remaining 10 causes of action.

The justice made his bid based connected the submission of papers without either enactment presenting an oral argument.

A Yuga Labs spokesperson gave CryptoSlate the pursuing connection successful effect to the judge’s order:

“Our suit to clasp Ripps and Cahen accountable for their evident and blatant theft of Yuga Labs’ trademarks rightfully moves guardant with this ruling. The tribunal agrees that their heinous lies are unrelated to the lawsuit and bash not springiness them carte blanche to infringe upon our marks. They intentionally misled consumers and made millions by utilizing Yuga’s intelligence spot to marketplace and merchantability copycat NFTs. We volition proceed to beryllium these facts arsenic the lawsuit progresses.”

Ryder Ripps responds

The defendants filed a defence and counterclaims response to Judge Walter’s ruling connected Dec. 27, successful which they sought a assemblage trial.

The 55-page papers went into item connected 16 circumstantial points that enactment their case. They were:

• protection nether First Amendment rights
• fair use
• BAYC imagery lacking distinctiveness
• Yuga Labs abandoning its marks
• acquiescence and/or estoppel
• unclean hands resulting from BAYC being unlawful, including classification arsenic an unregistered security
• the applicability of a doctrine of waiver
• equitable estoppel
• plaintiff’s claims constituting unjust enrichment
• lack of justification based connected RR/BAYC being conceptual and show art
• the defendants’ rights to usage “disputed property” for conceptual and show art purposes
• the defendants’ bully faith
• Yuga Labs’s nonaccomplishment to mitigate earlier ineligible enactment taken
• unfair apportionment of damages, if they beryllium astatine all
• speculative damages

Ripps’s tweets besides made allegations of intimidation and harassment, specified arsenic threats from a Yuga Labs cause called Guy Oseary, and the institution co-founders Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow making slanderous remarks against the defendants during a podcast.

The defendants question a dismissal of the lawsuit and counterclaim for damages owed to the affectional distress and mislaid time, among respective different requests.

The station Ryder Ripps responds to denial of question to disregard BAYC trademark lawsuit appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.