One of the founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, a copycat of the NFT collection, RR/BAYC, filed an objection to 10 trademark applications filed by Yuga Labs.
The move marks one other strange twist in the continued IP dispute between BAYC founders Yuga Labs and RR/BAYC founders Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen.
cahen filed notice of opposition to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Hearings and Trademark Appeals Board on Feb. 9. Opposition status for all trademark applications currently To read “in progress” on the time of writing.
Yuga Labs’ trademark applications were mostly filed within the second half of 2021 and include several BAYC logos, graphics and branding for potential use in digital products comparable to NFT-based graphics, trading cards and Metaverse wearables.
The submissions also mention the potential of BAYC’s physical products, including clothing, jewelry, watches and keychains, in addition to entertainment services comparable to games, TV and music.
Speaking to Bloomberg Law Feb. 11, a spokesperson for Yuga Labs played he diminished the possibilities of success of Cahen’s objection and suggested that the move was one other try and cause trouble for the corporate.
“The Trademark Office has pre-approved Yuga Labs’ trademark applications and we await their full approval sooner or later,” they said, adding that:
“Jeremy Cahen’s filing is yet one more try and divert attention from the actual issue of his infringement of Yuga’s mental property.”
In the notice, Cahen outlines an extended list of “grounds for objection” to the Yuga Labs documents. In particular, Cahen claims that the corporate has “renounced all rights” to certain logo and graphic designs on account of the sale of BAYC NFT, which granted the owners “all rights” to the digital images.
He also claims that Yuga Labs just isn’t the rightful owner of the particular skull designs, as the corporate allegedly transferred the rights to decentralized autonomous organization ApeCoin (DAO) in March 2022.
Furthermore, Cahen argues that Yuga Labs didn’t reveal a “good faith intention to lawfully use” the trademarks in its filings because NFTs ought to be registered and classified as securities under federal law.
Related: Clever News: Find Love within the Paris Hilton Metaverse, BTC CryptoPunks Soar and More
BAYC creators Yuga Labs sued digital artist Ryder Ripps and Cahen in June for using BAYC images in an RR/BAYC collection. The company also claimed that the duo were intentionally “trolling Yuga Labs and defrauding consumers” to buy their NFT copycats.
The move from Cahen also comes just three days after Yuga Labs settled a separate lawsuit against the RR/BAYC website and smart contract developer Thomas Lehman.
As a part of the settlement, Lehman agreed in principle to be permanently barred from any “confusingly similar” BAYC-related projects. In the statement, Lehman also distanced itself from Ryder Ripp and Cahen.
