Yuga Labs filed a lawsuit against the creator of "fake" BAYC tokens

The creators of the NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) have filed a lawsuit against artist Ryder Ripps. Yuga Labs accused him ofissuing and selling “fake” tokens that “devalue” original works.

“To put an end to the persistent violations andother illegal attempts to harm us and the BAYC community, we have filed a lawsuit against the responsible parties. We will continue to explore and pursue all legal options available to us,” the company said in a statement.

Twitter account The Bored Ape Gazette publishedthe full version of the document. According to the lawsuit, in an attempt to "devalue" the NFT collection, Ripps "flooded the market with copycat tokens using original Bored Ape Yacht Club images and calling them RR/BAYC."

Yuga Labs expects to achieve a solution thatwould prohibit Ripps and his partners from "further interfering with its prospective economic relations." The company is also seeking damages and legal costs. 

In January 2022, Ripps published an article inwhich called the BAYC collection “racist” and accused its creators of using Nazi symbols. For example, he noted that the line’s logo resembles a “Death’s Head.” 

In June, YouTuber Philion shared a similar opinion.According to him, NFTs from Yuga Labs contain racist cartoons of blacks and Asians, and the symbolism and language of the collection "similar to what the Nazis used."

On June 24, the founders of Yuga Labs responded to the allegations by Ripps and Philion. In a released statement, the team called the claims "far-fetched." 

“We have become the target of a mad campaign todisinformation accusing us - a group of Jewish, Turkish, Pakistani and Cuban friends - of being super-secret Nazis. […] Trolls continue to spread ridiculous conspiracy theories online and use this to sell fake NFTs,” the developers wrote. 

Recall that earlier Eminem and Snoop Dogg released a video in collaboration with the BAYC collection. In the From The D 2 The LBC video, the performers appeared as animated monkeys.

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