The Yuga Labs lawsuit against Ryder Ripps has taken a new twist after a federal judge ruled that Wylie Aronow and Greg Solano, the co-founders of Yuga Labs, must both be deposed in the court proceedings.
Founded in 2021, Yuga Labs is a digital collectibles incubation studio renowned for creating the popular non-fungible token collection, such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Kennel Ape Yacht Club, and Otherside virtual world game.
Yuga Labs And Ryder Ripps Lawsuit
Yuga Labs filed a lawsuit against Ryder Ripps, an American conceptual artist and internet provocateur, in July 2022, accusing the artist of gross trademark infringement. Yuga Labs sought to devalue authentic BAYC NFTs with a counterfeit collection dubbed RR/BAYC NFTs.
In August last year, Ryder Ripps filed a similar counterclaim lawsuit against Yuga Labs, accusing the Bored Ape creator of using neo-nazi imagery in the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection. The lawsuit maintained that using the BAYC trademarks for the RR/BAYC NFT was fair use.
Late last week, the Yuga Labs legal team filed a lawsuit before a federal court in California preventing Ripps’ lawyers from directly deposing Yuga Labs founders Wylie Aronow and Greg Solano from court proceedings.
In the lawsuit, Yuga Labs’ defence team argued that the co-founders were high-level corporate employees, “apex witnesses” that may be exempted from deposition if other lower-level employees can testify to the same information.
Court Rules Yuga Labs Founders To Be Deposed In The Lawsuit
Unfortunately, earlier this week, a federal judge overturned the case and labelled such arguments as “deficient on the merits,” The judge found that Yuga’s co-founders could even speak from their respective origins of the Bored Ape mark.
The judge warned Yuga Labs for a “lack of diligence,” citing the company’s failure to respond to several requests by Ripps’ counsel to discuss deposition scheduling. The court ordered Yuga’s co-founders to submit to deposition at the earliest possible date.
Under the new court ruling, Aranow should’ve shown up for his deposition on January 9. But, Ripps revealed that Aronow did not appear in court, and he is likely to face the consequences of his defiance.
The court has ruled that Wylie Aronow (@GordonGoner) and Greg Solano (@CryptoGarga) of @YugaLabs are not "Apex Witnesses", they in fact have to be deposed.
Wylie is not attending his ordered deposition today, he is now in violation of the court. https://t.co/ZEddItXPaz
— RYDER RIPPS (@ryder_ripps) January 9, 2023
Greg Solano is scheduled for deposition on January 11, 2023. Even though the Yuga Labs co-founder is scheduled for a medical appointment the same day, the federal court ruled that it will accept his video deposition.
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