Yuga Labs Settles Trademark Lawsuit Against BAYC Impersonator

The BAYC developers Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow have settled with Thomas Lehman over his role in selling a copycat collection of BAYC NFTs.
The lawsuit claims that the developer sought to devalue Bored Ape NFTs by flooding the NFT market.

From an announcement on Feb 6, Yuga labs the creator of the dominant NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club has settled its lawsuit with Thomas Lehman. In the lawsuit filed on January 2023, Yuga labs accused the latter of creating websites and smart contracts for Ryder Ripps and his associates.

The terms of the settlement include destroying any material from Lehman that may have the BAYC trademark and burning BAYC NFTs in his possession. The “Copycat” scheme reportedly earned $ 1.6 million in sales, and as payment, Thomas acquired 15%.

I am happy to have resolved the Yuga Labs, Inc. v. Lehman trademark lawsuit in the U.S. District Court Northern District of New York. It was never my intention to harm Yuga Labs’ brand, and I reject all disparaging statements made about Yuga Labs and its founders and appreciate their many positive contributions to the NFT space.

Lehman said in a statement provided to CoinDesk.

A representative from Yuga Labs stated that they are pleased that Mr. Lehman acknowledged his role in coding and developing the scheme, assisting former cohorts, Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen, to infringe on Yuga Labs’ trademarks.

In relation to the Thosmas lawsuit, Yuga labs sued Ryder Ripps and his associates after Ripps began spreading false allegations that the $4 billion firm behind dominant NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) contained latent, but intentional, racist, and pro-nazi imagery.

Yuga Labs sued the scheme artist for trademark infringement. A legal strategy was developed to prevent Ripps from turning the case into a referendum and showcase his allegations.

https://twitter.com/JPC_Esq/status/1622907239790006272

Last month a federal judge ruled that Yuga Labs developers must face deposition in the ongoing lawsuit. This was after failing to respond to several requests by Ripp to schedule a deposition.

Yuga labs also face a lawsuit on a different front. Scott + Scott a Californian law firm filed a class action complaint against Yuga Labs on behalf of Adam Titcher and Adonis Real. The defendants include a long list of celebrities deemed responsible for unrealistically hyping up the goods of Yuga Labs.

The suit was filed alongside a wealth of evidence outlining how Yuga Labs used a service called MoonPay as an intermediary to compensate the people promoting the NFT collection.