The lawyer representing Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen struggled to convince a panel of judges that Yuga Labs’ case against his clients should be thrown out under California’s anti-SLAPP statute.Nonfungible token artist Ryder Ripps’ most recent attempt to dismiss the Bored Ape Yacht Club-related lawsuit against him appears to have fallen on skeptical ears.
He repeatedly positioned Ripps and Cahan as selling the NFTs as an avant-garde exercise that pushes the boundaries of speech and claimed Yuga’s suit should have been thrown out under a California law that aims to stop intimidatory lawsuits, known as SLAPP suits. “He was selling the same images, on the same marketplaces, on virtually indistinguishable NFT identifiers,” said Judge Anthony Johnstone in response to Sprankling’s argument.against Ripps and Cahen in July 2022, alleging the pair made millions of dollars while engaging in trademark infringement, false advertising and unfair competition following the release of a derivative NFT collection called RR/BAYC.