Wylie Aronow and Greg Solano, the co-creators of the perennially popular Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible token (NFT) series, will be deposed as part of an ongoing trademark lawsuit Yuga Labs, the corporate backer of BAYC, filed against conceptual artist Ryder Ripps.
In a court filing ahead of a hearing on Monday, Yuga argued the co-founders were "apex witnesses" and would not need to be deposed if lower-level employees could testify in their place. Although the case is focused particularly on the narrow legal issue of trademark infringement, Ripps has been waging a yearlong PR campaign to paint the Bored Apes and related intellectual property as covertly racist and pro-Nazi projects.
The federal magistrate in California overseeing the case wrote that the co-founders are "the only people who have knowledge of the" trademarks at the center of the lawsuit. He further admonished Yuga's delayed responses and "lack of diligence" ahead of scheduled hearings, Decrypt reported.
The fact that Aronow and Solano initially looked to finagle their way out of a deposition (as part of a case Yuga filed) only goes to show the trouble Yuga has had responding to Ripps' provocations. They're now dealing with the consequences of filing suit against a prankster – which brings a matter Yuga would rather forget further into the public light.
Beginning in early 2022, Ripps began waging a campaign against Yuga Labs, looking to unravel an allegedly vast and oblique alt-right and neo-Nazi conspiracy. He claimed the company's founders were internet trolls who embedded racist "dog-whistles," or coded messages, across the brand they were building – like noting the similarities between the BAYC logo and an SS insignia.
By many accounts, Ripps – who has a long history of turning internet trolls into statement pieces – was successful. He bought the domain name GordonGoner.com – referring to the pseudonym Aronow used initially – that ranks highly in internet searches and leads to a webpage detailing the supposedly offensive imagery. Yuga, of course, has denied these accusations, but a conspiracy does not need to be true to spread.
Ripps' crowning achievement was the launch of his project, RR/BAYC. It was a series of 10,000 NFTs that correspond to the original BAYC set – sharing the same names, features and underlying media – that were sold on the same marketplaces Yuga uses to sell its NFTs. Beyond its political statement, Ripps said his copycat series raised questions about digital ownership and functionality of NFTs – a topic he's explored before.
For many, Ripps' antics seemed like a slam-dunk example of infringement of intellectual property. Yuga claimed Ripps's RR/BAYC NFT collection tricked consumers looking to buy genuine Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTS – netting Ripps and his team some $1.8 million. However, even if Yuga wins on the trademark issue, that will not curtail Ripps' ability to speak openly about his suspicions. It also will force Yuga's publicity-shy founders to testify under oath, giving Ripps a platform as well as the content and attention he feeds desires.
As Frye said: "The lawsuit is only looking more unwise for Yuga, which has more important things to be dealing with. The Streisand effect is real and predictably is only hurting their brand. And they should be focusing more on the future of their product."
– D.K.
