{"id":38705,"date":"2025-07-25T03:46:38","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T03:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=38705"},"modified":"2025-07-25T03:46:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T03:46:38","slug":"us-appeals-court-overturns-yuga-labs-9m-trademark-lawsuit-judgment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=38705","title":{"rendered":"US Appeals Court Overturns Yuga Labs\u2019 $9M Trademark Lawsuit Judgment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A US court of Appeals has sent Yuga Labs, the creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) non-fungible token (NFT) collection, back to the district court for its lawsuit against artist Ryder Ripps and business partner Jeremy Cahen.<\/p>\n

Yuga Labs Sent Back To District Court<\/h2>\n

On Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals partially<\/a>\u00a0overturned the judgment in Yuga Labs\u2019 lawsuit against Ripps and Cahen\u2019s NFT collection, ruling that the company had yet to prove its claims of trademark infringement and cybersquatting.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Ripps and Cahen launched the Ryder Ripps Bored Ape Yacht Club (RR\/BAYC) collection with identical copies of Yuga Lab\u2019s NFT collection and similar marketing tactics. The duo argued that their collection was a satirical and critical response to the original NFTs, which they claimed<\/a> have racist imagery and neo-Nazi, alt-right references.<\/p>\n

\"Yuga<\/p>\n

That same year, Yuga Labs filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Ripps and Cahen, alleging that the duo had deceived buyers by offering NFTs falsely equivalent to the BAYC collection under the pretext of satire. Additionally, the company claimed that Ripps and Cahen had damaged their reputation with their accusations.<\/p>\n

Yuga Labs claimed<\/a> victory in 2023, when the District Court in California ruled that the company was the rightful owner of the BAYC trademarks and determined that Ripps and Cahen utilized these trademarks without consent, likely confusing potential buyers who wanted to purchase an authentic Bored Ape NFT. At the time, Yuga Labs called the ruling \u201ca win for the entire Web3 industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initially, a judge declared that the plaintiff was entitled to $1.6 million in damages from the duo. However, it was later raised to $9 million after Ripps and Cahen lost their counterclaim.<\/p>\n

Notably, Ripps and Cahen countersued Yuga Labs under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), seeking declaratory relief that the company had no copyright protection over the Bored Apes.<\/p>\n

The defendant\u2019s counterclaims were dismissed by the district court for a \u201clack of subject-matter jurisdiction,\u201d granting summary judgment for the company on its two claims and the defendant\u2019s DMCA counterclaim.<\/p>\n

A Key Win For NFT Holders<\/h2>\n

According to the Wednesday ruling, the three-judge panel affirmed in part and reversed in part the district court\u2019s judgment and remanded the case. The panel held that an NFT can be trademarked under the Lanham Act, which protects marks used with \u201cany goods or services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on this, they concluded<\/a> that defendants\u2019 NFTs were \u201cgoods\u201d, but determined that Yuga Labs had the trademark priority as it was the first to use the Bored Ape Yacht Club marks in commerce.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, they reversed the district court\u2019s grant of summary judgment on the company\u2019s trademark infringement and cybersquatting claims, arguing that Yuga Labs \u201cdid not prove as a matter of law that the defendants\u2019 actions were likely to cause consumer confusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the ruling determined that the duo\u2019s use of Yuga Labs\u2019 marks did not \u201cconstitute nominative fair use\u201d and was not \u201cexpressive work\u201d protected by the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs to the trademark claim, (\u2026) the panel could not conclude as a matter of law that a reasonably prudent consumer in the marketplace was likely to be confused as to the origin of the goods bearing Yuga\u2019s marks,\u201d the court document reads.<\/p>\n

Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solano affirmed<\/a> on X that BAYC NFTs being protectable trademarks is \u201can important win for every NFT holder,\u201d adding that the company will \u201cnow finish the fight in the district court, where the judge already fined the RR BAYC founders $9m+ in damages. We\u2019ll win in the district just like we won before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Yuga<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A US court of Appeals has sent Yuga Labs, the creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) non-fungible token (NFT) collection, back to the district court for its lawsuit against artist Ryder Ripps and business partner Jeremy Cahen. Yuga Labs Sent Back To District Court On Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals partially\u00a0overturned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-38705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}