Ryder Ripps Lawyers To Pit Artistic Freedom Against Trademark Traditions

Ryder Ripps has lawyered up ahead of Yuga Labs court case.

Yuga Labs, creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), sued Ripps on June 24, alleging trademark infringement, false advertising, unfair competition and cybersquatting with his NFT collection RR/BAYC.

Ripps, a 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 alumnus, and Jeremy Cahen, another defendant named in the suit and founder of non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Not Larva Labs, announced they will be represented by Louis Tompros, partner at WilmerHale, which the lawyer confirmed to Forbes.

“Trademark is not a muzzle – Yuga is misusing the court system to selectively punish and silence Ripps and Cahen for creating art that speaks out against their litany of lies and unethical behavior,” reads a press release by WilmerHale announcing Ripps’ new lawyers.

According to Tompros, the case centers around “applying a traditional old intellectual property law to new and developing technologies.” His work with IP law includes high-profile cases such as representing Matt Furie in a dispute over usage of his “Pepe the Frog” meme by the far right. He won a case against Infowars’ Alex Jones in 2009.

BAYC has one of the most generous approaches to ownership privileges, giving purchasers unlimited commercialization rights to its Bored Apes, including permission to create derivative works. Bored Ape owners have “unlimited, worldwide license to use, copy, and display the purchased Art for the purpose of creating derivative works based upon the Art,” according to the company’s Terms and Conditions.

Yuga Labs’ complaint points out that Ripps uses the very same trademarks to promote their RR/BAYC NFT collection and they attempt to sell these RR/BAYC NFTs on the same marketplaces that Yuga Labs uses to sell its Bored Ape NFTs, such as OpenSea. According to the suit, these NFTs identical to its own are intentionally confusing potential buyers.

While Ripps claims that his re-minting of the Bored Apes is “satire,” the suit alleges that the artists’ collection is part of a “longstanding harassment campaign against Yuga Labs and an attempt to devalue the price of authentic Bored Ape NFTs.” Ripps has been a critic of the collection, saying BAYC has “extensive connections” to “subversive internet Nazi troll culture,” claims that Yuga Labs denies.

Bored Apes is the leading NFT collection by floor cap, estimated at $985.63 million by NFTPriceFloor.

The case is currently poised to be a landmark intellectual property case within the world of NFTs. Given the current ambiguity in what rights, if any, are granted to NFT creators, owners and buyers, a ruling on the suit would set a precedent for future collections.

“We're certainly prepared to take the case all the way,” says Tompros.

The fundamental question of the case, according to Tompros’s co-counsel Alfred Steiner, is whether there was a likelihood of confusion on the RR/BAYC collection. Steiner, both an artist and attorney, is being brought in as a subject matter expert to advise on the case.

Ultimately, he says, the case is a trademark issue that has implications beyond the NFT sector.

“Artists need to be able to depict the world, and trademarks are in the world,” says Steiner.

In a Twitter Spaces early this morning, Ripps said he would only settle the case for a payment of $100 billion, though Tompros would not comment on whether this was part of his legal team’s strategy.

Yuga Labs has hired Silicon Valley firm Fenwick & West, a favorite among tech giants like Facebook and Amazon AMZN , to represent them in the case against Ripps. While Ripps’ team has yet to file a formal response to the complaint, Tompros told Forbes one would be filed.