Yuga Labs has pleaded with a U.S. court to sanction Ryder Ripps. They claim Ripps purposely destroyed the private keys to his wallets holding RR/BAYC NFTs. In a filing last week, Yuga Labs claims Ripps’ actions were intended to “thwart” a court injunction.
“Given Mr. Ripps’ bad-faith destruction of his private keys, misleading declaration, and continued misrepresentations to Yuga Labs and the Court, the Court should exercise its inherent power and hold Mr. Ripps in contempt,” Yuga Labs said.
The defendants requested the court to reject Yuga Labs’ sanction request. The filing stated that Ripps’ counsel had reached out to Yuga Labs’ counsel, contrary to the company’s previous filing. It was also alleged that Ripps complied with the October injunction in full, except for the orders tied to wallets, to which he lost access.
The two parties have been engaged in a long-running dispute surrounding Ripps’ creation, which the court saw as an infringement of Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club trademark in a decision last October. The Oct. 25 injunction ordered Ripps to surrender any NFTs infringing on Yuga Labs’ intellectual property.
A California district court made a final judgment on Feb. 3 in favor of Yuga Labs, requiring Ripps and his collaborator to burn any remaining RR/BAYC NFTs or hand them over to Yuga for destruction within two weeks, according to the filing.
