Yuga Labs Founders Wylie Aronow and Greg Solano Suspended in California Federal Court for Contempt of Court, Failure to Appear, and Willfully Refusal to Testify Without Good Cause. Yuga Labs' allegations that they were unable to file a timely motion to postpone the hearing were dismissed by the court as unfounded.
The verdict follows a legal battle between Yuga Labs, creators of the popular NFT project Bored Ape Yacht Club, and NFT artist Ryder Ripps.
Recall that Yuga Labs filed a lawsuit over copyright infringement on a series of non-fungible Bored Ape tokens and undermining its economic activities by Ripps, as a result of which developers may incur losses. The lawsuit alleged that the artist sought to “devalue the Bored Ape NFT by flooding the market with his own collection of NFT fakes using original Bored Ape images and calling them RR/BAYC.”
Ripps denied all Yuga Labs allegations of allegedly copying the Bored Ape collection. He claims that Yuga Labs does not own the relevant copyrights, and also that the unique nature of non-fungible tokens technologically does not allow them to be copied.
“Each of these NFTs is an entry in a decentralized digital ledger and is completely unique in design, making them non-interchangeable and impossible to copy,” Ripps said in a court filing.
Court urges Yuga Labs founders to agree on alternative testimonial date as soon as possible. Otherwise, Yuga Labs will be responsible for paying any costs associated with the canceled court hearings.
The other day, NFT SuperRare CEO John Crain announced a 30% reduction in staff, because during the rise of the NFT market, too many employees were hired and the platform is no longer able to support them.