Yuga Labs, creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT (BAYC) group, is suing Los Angeles-based artist Ryder Rips for his RR/BAYC conceptual art project.
Yuga Labs lawyers provided a complaint On June 24, Ripps was charged with false advertising, trademark infringement and electronic theft, among other charges. The complaint also lists Jeremy Kahn, founder of the NFT marketplace Not Larva Labs, and Do Ten as defendants.
“In response to the popularity of Bored Ape Yacht Club, self-proclaimed ‘concept artist’ defendant Ryder Ripps recently began trolling Yuga Labs and deceiving consumers into buying RR/BAYC NFTs by misusing Yuga Labs trademarks,” the complaint reads. “He is seeking to undervalue the Bored Monkey NFT by flooding the NFT market with his range of replica NFTs using original Bored Ape Yachting Club images and calling the NFTs ‘RR/BAYC’ NFTs.
Rips is a famous artist who was doing conceptual work around and with the internet for his entire career. Ripps has held numerous solo exhibitions, and has developed businesses for many celebrities and major brands.
In January, Ripps began posting on his social media accounts – where he has tens of thousands of followers – about what he believes are links between images and language in BAYC and those in Nazi and white supremacist messages. For example, Ripps noted that the BAYC logo looks exactly similar To the Nazi emblem Totenkopf. Rips also gave an interview to Know your meme about this subject. The question of whether the founders of Yuga Labs or BAYC were racist quickly became a controversy on social media.
These actions were named in the complaint as a “harassment campaign based on false accusations of racism.”
In mid-May, Ripps launched RR/BAYC (Ryder Ripps Bored Ape Yacht Club), an NFT project that rips pictures and names straight from BAYC as a kind of conceptual art protest. Yuga Labs claims RR/BAYC has hurt their business.
“This is not just monkey business,” the complaint continues. Yuga Labs’ lawyers said RR/BAYC was intentionally confusing potential BAYC clients who believed RR/BAYC was legitimately linked to Yuga Labs. OpenSea, the NFT marketplace in which BAYC and RR/BAYC are both sold and traded, has consistently delisted RR/BAYC.
Rips denies any buyers have been misled.
Ribs said in statement Posted on Twitter. “No one was under the impression that RR/BAYC NFTs were alternatives to BAYC NFTs or would give them access to the Yuga Club. They expressly acknowledged the disclaimer on purchase.”
Although the complaint claims that consumers are deceived into purchasing RR/BAYC, it charges individuals who “purchase and resell RR/BAYC NFT despite knowing it to be counterfeit,” listed Do 6-10, of the same fees as Ripps according to complaint.
The complaint comes after Rips has hit a number of hits over the past month. In late May, Reps Defeated DMCA takedown request for RR/BAYC. Then, last week, YouTuber Philip Rusnack, who goes by Philion’s side, posted an hour-long post. video on BAYC and its alleged connections to racist messages. The video, in which Ripps’ research was used, has been viewed more than a million times. In addition, last week, RR / BAYC traded in a 24-hour period at higher rate (not volume) of BAYC.
Rips argued that the RR/BAYC project “uses sarcasm and appropriation to protest and educate people” about BAYC and NFTs.
Under the legal doctrine of fair use, one may use copyrighted material”for a limited and “transformative” purposesuch as commenting on, criticizing, or parodying a copyrighted work,” attorney Richard Steim explained to Stanford Libraries. This speech is protected by the First Amendment.
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