Yuga Labs’ $9 million trademark infringement victory over NFT artist Ryder Ripps has been overturned by the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The appellate court ruled that Yuga Labs did not prove that Ripps and his business partner Jeremy Cahen’s NFT collection, which Yuga claimed was a direct copy of its Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) series, was likely to cause consumer confusion. As a result, the case has been remanded to a federal district court in California for a full trial to assess Yuga’s trademark infringement and cybersquatting claims.
We just heard back from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on the RR BAYC case.
The Ninth Circuit confirmed: BAYC NFTs are protectable trademarks, which is an important win for every NFT holder.
We’ll now finish the fight in the district court, where the judge already fined…
— Garga.eth (Greg Solano) (@CryptoGarga) July 23, 2025
The original lawsuit, filed by Yuga Labs in 2022, accused Ripps and Cahen of creating a derivative NFT collection titled “Ryder Ripps Bored Ape Yacht Club.” Yuga argued this collection infringed on its trademarks and misled consumers. Ripps countered that his collection was a form of satire meant to critique alleged racist imagery used by Yuga in the BAYC series. However, the Ninth Circuit judges determined that Yuga had not met the legal standard to uphold the $9 million damages awarded by a lower court in 2023, which had found Ripps and Cahen’s NFTs likely to cause market confusion. The appeals panel contended that more factual investigation through trial was necessary to resolve these issues.
Despite reversing the financial award, the appellate court confirmed a significant legal precedent by recognizing NFTs themselves as “goods” under US trademark law. This acknowledgment allows NFT projects like BAYC to assert trademark rights against similar competing collections. The court also upheld that Yuga held trademark priority as the first user of the BAYC marks in commerce—marking a notable advancement in NFT-related intellectual property protection.
Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solano acknowledged the appeals ruling on social media, affirming the company’s intent to pursue the matter further in district court. Meanwhile, Ripps hailed the decision as a major win for artistic expression and free speech concerning NFT creativity.
Notably, Infinite Node Foundation (NODE), a nonprofit dedicated to digital art, has officially acquired the intellectual property rights to the CryptoPunks non-fungible token (NFT) collection from Yuga Labs.
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