Conceptual artist Ryder Ripps was officially barred from using Yuga Labs’ imagery and trademarks going forward as part of an apparent resolution to a long-simmering legal debate, Reuters reported on Wednesday. 

According to a court filing on Tuesday, Bored Ape Yacht Club maker Yuga Labs and the defendants Ripps and business partner Jeremy Cahen have reached an agreement to resolve the claims of the case. Details of the settlement have not yet been publicly announced. 

Yuga sued Ripps and Cahen, also known as Pauly0x, in 2022 for trademark violations after the duo created an allegedly satirical project using the same imagery and ape characters from the original NFT collection. Ripps had also accused BAYC of hiding racist and anti-semitic tropes throughout its artwork, which Yuga described as part of Ripps’ "campaign of harassment," though the company did not sue for defamation.

Ripps had claimed his project — often called RR/BAYC — was a work of "expressive appropriation art" and protected under the First Amendment. However, in 2023, U.S. District Judge John Walter ruled the copycat tokens could create confusion in the NFT market and violated Yuga’s trademark protections.

Walter ordered Ripps and Cahen to pay nearly $9 million in disgorgement of profits, penalties, and attorneys' fees.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, while dismissing much of Ripps’ legal argument about fair use, ruled against Yuga’s summary judgment and ordered the case to go to trial, vacating the $9 million penalty. This Ninth Court decision is often said to set the precedent that NFTs are protectable by trademark law.

It now appears the parties are ready to settle. Yuga had previously asked the court to sanction Ripps after he claimed to have destroyed the private keys to the RR/BAYC project. 

Cahen created the NFT marketplace Not Larva Labs, named after the original makers of CryptoPunks. Yuga at one point owned the CryptoPunk IP. 

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