Yuga Labs settles BAYC trademark lawsuit with Ryder Ripps, ending four-year copycat NFT fight

Yuga had a $9M judgment and still settled after the Ninth Circuit vacated it — both sides treated a jury trial on "NFT consumer confusion" as a coin flip. The Ninth Circuit's ruling stands as caselaw either way: NFTs are trademark-protectable goods under the Lanham Act, and commercial PFP copying gets no First Amendment shield. Derivative projects that leaned on "it's just commentary" as legal cover need new counsel.

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• Yuga Labs and Ryder Ripps Reach Settlement on Counterfeit NFT ... (binance.com)
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• Yuga Labs, Inc. v. Ripps - Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center (fairuse.stanford.edu)
• Yuga Labs, Inc. v. Ripps, No. 24-879 (9th Cir. 2025) - Justia Law (law.justia.com)
• [PDF] Yuga Labs, Inc. v. Ripps - Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov)

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