Following the rejection of their counterclaims, Jeremy Cahen and Ryder Ripps were compelled to reimburse Yuga Labs for nearly $9 million in digital collectibles.
In their action against Yuga Labs, the inventor of Bored Ape Yacht Club, artists Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen have had their counterclaims dismissed. An unfavourable ruling has been issued, compelling the two to pay $9 million in disgorgement and other statutory damages.
According to reports from April 2023, Yuga Labs won its lawsuit against Ripps and Cahen for allegedly infringing copyright laws by producing unofficial versions of the non-fungible tokens (NFT) of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).
This happened when the two capitalised on the popular BAYC trademark to introduce the Ryder Ripps BAYC (RR/BAYC) collection in May 2022. In order to ostensibly conclude the litigation, Ripps and Cahen were ordered to pay Yuga Labs a total of $1.57 million in damages in addition to paying for legal fees. But in a court document dated February 2, it states that the court rejected Ripps and Cahen’s most recent counterclaims challenging the allegations.
This time, Ripps and Cahen must pay nearly $9 million to cover disgorgement, legal fees, and expert witness costs. Additionally, they were told to get rid of any RR/BAYC NFTs they may have:
“If Defendants own any RR/BAYC NFTs, they shall destroy (e.g., “burn”) the NFTs or provide them to Yuga to burn.”
Cahen, who has 174,100 X followers and goes by Pauly0x, revealed in a post that the two plan to appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of California.
In their counterclaims, Ripps and Cahen accused Yuga Labs of intentionally causing emotional distress, negligently causing emotional distress, and requesting a declaration that there was no defamation.
The judge, however, severely limited Yuga’s first and third causes of action against Ripps and Cahen. These claims included cybersquatting, or purchasing domain names with the goal of making money off of a trademark, and false destination of origin. The punishment was stated to be in the range of millions of dollars.
Furthermore, the smart contract and all social media profiles connected to the RR/BAYC NFTs must be turned over by Ripps and Cohen.
The lawsuit said, in part, that “Defendants shall destroy any and all other infringing materials, including NFTs, articles, documents, software, promotional items, or advertisements using any BAYC Mark in their possession or control.”