In Yuga Labs’ latest legal dispute against artist Ryder Ripps and his partner Jeremy Cahen, the NFT studio, which developed the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection, was sanctioned by a U.S. court for allegedly destroying the private keys to Ripps’ wallet. requested. According to documents filed last week, it appears to have included RR/BAYC NFTs to intentionally “undermine” the court’s injunction.
“Given Mr. Ripps’ destruction of private keys, misleading declarations, and persistent misrepresentations to Yuga Labs and the court, the court must exercise its inherent authority and hold Mr. Ripps in contempt,” Yuga Labs said. filing.
in answer In a filing Monday, the defendants asked the court to deny Yuga Labs’ request for sanctions. The filing says Ripps’ attorney contacted Yuga Labs’ attorney, contrary to the company’s filing last week. Ripps also maintained that he had fully complied with the October order, except for those relating to his wallet, which he did not have access to.
The two parties have been involved in a long-standing dispute over Ripps and Cahen’s creation, the RR/BAYC NFT. The court ruled that it was an infringement In a decision last October, Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club trademark was registered. The October 25 injunction ordered Ripps and Cahen to give up all NFTs that infringe their intellectual property rights.
The California District Court ruled as follows: Final ruling on February 3rd The filing said that in favor of Yuga Labs, Ripps and Cahen were asked to either burn all remaining RR/BAYC NFTs or hand them over to Yuga to be destroyed within two weeks.
According to filingIt was on February 21 that Ripps disclosed that he had destroyed the private keys of the wallet containing the NFT in question last December. Ripps explained that this measure is intended to prevent inadvertent interference with wallets that could be considered a violation of a court order.
“Mr. Ripps’ actions will only further harm Yuga Labs by defeating the purpose of the court’s injunction,” Yuga Labs said in the filing. “To be clear, simply deleting the private keys means that Mr. Ripps will no longer have access to the wallet. “It means he can’t access the infringing NFTs. He still owns them and he’s still connected to them.”
Yuga Labs added that Ripps can recover access to NFTs if they have a physical or digital backup of the private keys. NFT Studio questioned the validity of Ripps’ explanation, saying he continued to use one or more wallets linked to RR/BAYC even after the date of the initial court order on October 25.
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