Yuga Labs filed a lawsuit against the creator of “fake” BAYC tokens

The creators of the NFT-collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) sued the artist Ryder Ripps. Yuga Labs accused him of issuing and selling “fake” tokens that devalue the original works.

(2/2) … us and the BAYC community, we have filed a lawsuit against the responsible parties. We will continue exploring and pursuing all legal options at our disposal.

— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) June 25, 2022

“To end persistent violations and other illegal attempts to harm us and the BAYC community, we have filed a lawsuit against the responsible parties. We will continue to explore and use all legal options at our disposal,” the company said in a statement.

Twitter account The Bored Ape Gazette published the full version of the document. According to the lawsuit, in an attempt to “devalue” the NFT collection, Ripps “flooded the market with copycat tokens, using original images of Bored Ape Yacht Club and calling them RR/BAYC.”

FULL DOCUMENT » @yugalabs Announced That It Filed A Lawsuit Today.

Here’s The full 43 Page Suit: pic.twitter.com/ZtSrY0zlhh

— The Bored Ape Gazette🍌 (@BoredApeGazette) June 25, 2022

Yuga Labs expects to reach a solution that would prohibit Ripps and his partners from “further interfering in its promising economic relationship.” The company is also seeking damages and legal costs.

In January 2022, Ripps published an article in which he called the BAYC collection “racist” and accused its creators of using Nazi symbols. For example, he noted that the logo of the ruler is similar to “Dead Head”.

In June, a similar opinion was shared by YouTuber Philion. According to him, the NFT from Yuga Labs contains racist cartoons of blacks and Asians, and the symbolism and language of the collection “are similar to what the Nazis used.”

On June 24, the founders of Yuga Labs responded to ripps and Philion’s accusations. In a published statement, the team called these claims “far-fetched.”

“We have been the target of a crazy disinformation campaign accusing us — a group of Jewish, Turkish, Pakistani and Cuban friends — of being super-secret Nazis. […] Trolls continue to spread ridiculous conspiracy theories online and use it to sell fake NFTs,” the developers wrote.

Earlier, Eminem and Snoop Dogg released a clip in collaboration with the BAYC collection. In the video From The D 2 The LBC, the performers appeared in the image of animated monkeys.