BAYC Spin-Off Collection Witnesses Legal Battles and Copyright Issues

• Bored Ape is a significant NFT project and a spin-off series by the name Caked Ape was launched in January. 

• And now the Caked Apes collections team is behind each other filing lawsuits.

• The suit claims that about 9,000 Caked Ape NFTs sold out with a generation of $1.9 million in direct sales and $225,000 in secondary sales royalties. 

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have gained a lot of popularity lately, the concept is witnessing keen interest from prominent entities and celebrities. 

Among a lot of NFT projects, one of the most significant ones is the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYB) by Yuga Labs. Earlier in January, a spin-off series of BAYC was launched by the name Caked Apes.

Why did the Project come under Legal Battles?

Caked Apes is a collection of 49 and is listed on one of the largest NFT marketplaces OpenSea with four owners. But there are no prices mentioned on the marketplace. 

And according to a report, the team behind each of the collections is now behind each other. Apparently, they are suing each other because of the designs of the caricatures and revenue shares. 

Furthermore, the report signifies that the lawsuits are filed in the Los Angeles federal courts. According to an owner of eleven Bored Apes, Taylor Whitley, the Caked Ape team breached the digital designs and ousted him from the project and he filed a lawsuit claiming this. 

Whereas the Caked Ape collection owners Jacob Nygard and the other three came up with their own lawsuit accusing Taylor that he is trying to claim the ownership of their joint venture. 

Taylor Whitley was also accused of misusing the federal copyright law to have the collection taken off from marketplaces. 

Recently the Caked Apes team expressed via Twitter, that once Taylor saw the sales of CA take off, he tried to renege on their agreed-upon deal and claim the bigger piece of pie with no legal or ethical grounds to back up his claims. 

Whereas Nygard’s attorney, John Snow opined that this is one of a kind case dealing with the Bored Ape licenses and what’s allowed and what’s not allowed. 

Whitley claims that any license he granted to his former partners at CA was revoked because his digital art agency did not receive the agreed-upon portion of revenue. The suit claims that about 9,000 Caked Ape NFTs sold out with a generation of $1.9 million in direct sales and $225,000 in secondary sales royalties. 

John Purcell, Whitley’s attorney, expressed that he was instrumental to all the stages of the founding, creation, and launch of the Caked Apes and has been unlawfully alienated from his creations. 

Whereas the CA team of the four members claim that Taylor did not contribute any original drawings to the Caked Apes creation. 

As the concepts like NFTs and Metaverse are still emerging and new for some people, there are no prior precedents of such cases. It is to look forward to what the federal court concludes on this matter. 

Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast and believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning.

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