U.S. Court Mandates Ryder Ripps to Pay Yuga Labs $9 Million in Final Judgment

• Ryder Ripps has been fined $9 million in the case against Yuga Labs.
• According to the final judgment, $9 million would cover penalties and other fees.
• The court asked Ripps and Cahen to relinquish the NFTs they created and transfer any infringing IP to Yuga Labs.

Ryder Ripps, an American conceptual artist, has been fined $9 million in the case against Yuga Labs. Following a final judgment by U.S. District Judge John F. Walter, Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen would pay Yuga Labs nearly $9 million to cover penalties and other fees.

In a long-standing lawsuit, Yuga Labs, creators of the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT series, sued Ripps and Cahen for infringing on the company’s trademark. The court gave the verdict on the case on April 21, 2023, with a federal court in California ruling in favor of Yuga Labs. 

The court’s ruling clarified that the RR/BAYC’s collection didn’t stand as artistic expression protected by the First Amendment, as Ripps and Cahen had claimed. It also noted that Yuga Labs was allowed to protect a trademark product. It also agreed with Yuga Lab’s notion that RR/BAYC had deliberately tried to mislead consumers.

Ripps and Cahen appealed the judgment but lost, with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the original decision. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court concerned the original ruling, denying Ripps’ and Cahen’s request to dismiss Yuga’s state-law claims under California’s anti-SLAPP statute.

The court released the final sentence several months after the initial ruling, mandating Ripps and Cahen to pay $8.9 million. With penalties only about $1.5 million, most of the payment would cover attorney’s fees and other costs. 

The court also asked Ripps and Cahen to relinquish the NFTs they created and transfer any infringing intellectual property (IP) to Yuga Labs. The ruling implies that Ripps and Cahen would transfer domain names and Smart Contracts as part of the IPs. The court also mandates them to effect the transfer within the next two weeks.