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NFT artist Ryder Ripps' recent effort to fend off a lawsuit linked to the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) doesn't appear to be making headway in court.
During a hearing on October 17, a panel of three judges from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth District showed little inclination to accept the defense put forth by Ripps and Jeremy Cahen (who operates under the online alias "Pauly" on X). Their attorney argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed on the grounds of freedom of speech.
Represented by WilmerHale's Thomas Sprankling, the defense stressed that the NFTs in question, closely resembling the Bored Ape designs, were distributed as a form of protest against alleged hidden anti-Semitic symbols in the original Yuga Labs collection.
Sprankling characterized the actions of Ripps and Cahen as boundary-pushing expressions of avant-garde art. He argued that Yuga Labs' lawsuit should be dismissed under a California law known as SLAPP (strategic lawsuits against public participation), which aims to prevent litigation designed to silence individuals.
Expanding on this point, Sprankling emphasized that the anti-SLAPP regulation's intent is to shield free speech from threats of intimidating litigation, which, according to him, precisely describes the situation at hand.
Ripps and Cahen, in their defense, have asserted that Yuga Labs pursued the lawsuit primarily to silence their artistic protest and burden them with legal expenses.
However, the judges appeared to be more focused on the sales of the NFTs, largely brushing aside arguments rooted in artistic expression. Judge Anthony Johnstone commented on the similarity of the images being sold on similar platforms. Another judge, Morgan Christen, expressed doubts about the defense's position.
Yuga Labs initiated legal action against Ripps and Cahen in July 2022. The lawsuit alleges that the duo substantially profited through trademark infringement, misleading advertising, and unfair competition following the launch of a spin-off NFT collection named RR/BAYC.
A decision in April by Californian District Court Judge John Walter concluded that Ripps and Cahen had indeed infringed on Yuga Lab's trademarks with their RR/BAYC collection. While Judge Walter has deliberated on the compensation owed to Yuga Labs, the final verdict remains pending.
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