A Yuga Labs spokeswoman downplayed the relevance of the opposition notice, implying that the RR/BAYC co-founder is simply trying to stir up trouble.
One of the founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club clone NFT collection RR/BAYC has filed an opposition notice against Yuga Labs’ ten trademark applications.
The decision represents yet another bizarre twist in the ongoing intellectual property battle between BAYC inventors Yuga Labs and RR/BAYC founders Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen.
Cahen filed the opposition notice with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on February 9. At the time of writing, the opposition status was “pending” on all trademark filings.
Yuga Labs’ trademark applications were largely filed in the second half of 2021, and they cover a slew of BAYC logos, artwork, and branding for prospective usage in digital products such NFT-based art, trading cards, and Metaverse wearables.
The documents also include the possibility of real BAYC products including apparel, jewelry, watches, and keychains, as well as leisure services like gaming, television, and music.
A Yuga Labs representative told Bloomberg Law on Feb. 11 that Cahen’s resistance was unlikely to succeed and that the move was just another attempt to generate difficulty for the company.
“The Trademark Office has preliminarily approved Yuga Labs’ trademark registration applications, and we look forward to their complete approval in due course,” they said, adding:
“Jeremy Cahen’s filing is just another attempt to distract from the real issue at hand, his infringement of the Yuga intellectual property.”
Cahen’s notification includes a comprehensive list of “grounds for disagreement” to Yuga Labs’ filings. Cahen alleges, in particular, that the company “abandoned any rights” to certain logo and artwork designs as a result of BAYC NFT sales allowing the owners “all rights” to the digital images.
He further alleges that Yuga Labs is not the lawful owner of specific skull designs, despite the fact that the company allegedly handed over the rights to the ApeCoin decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in March 2022.
Cahen further claims that Yuga Labs failed to establish a “bona fide purpose to legitimately use” the trademarks in its filings, despite the fact that the NFTs are required to be registered and classed as securities under federal law.
Yuga Labs, the makers of BAYC, sued digital artists Ryder Ripps and Cahen in June for utilizing BAYC material in the RR/BAYC collection. The company also claimed that the two were “trolling Yuga Labs and tricking consumers” into purchasing their counterfeit NFTs.
Cahen’s move comes just three days after Yuga Labs reached a separate settlement with RR/BAYC website and smart contract developer Thomas Lehman.
As part of the settlement, Lehman consented to a permanent injunction prohibiting him from participating in any “confusingly comparable” BAYC-related ventures in the future. Lehman issued a statement in which he distanced himself from Ryder Ripp and Cahen.
