Yuga Labs sues trick-or-treaters wearing Bored Ape costumes for copyright infringement

NEW YORK - Yuga Labs, creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), has sued 8 trick-or-treaters for dressing up as various Bored Apes. In a post from the Twitter account of the Bored Ape Gazette, it was noted that Yuga Labs has accused these children of creating “fraudulent real-world NFTs that devalue the originals.”

The lawsuit claims that the children, with ages ranging from 4 to 7, sought to “devalue the Bored Ape NFTs by flooding New York City with an unauthorized collection of real world NFTs claiming to be a part of the BAYC collection.”

The alleged instance of copyright infringement was discovered when a social media post with a picture of the children was posted with the caption “that’s BAYC #1597, pretty sure that kid isn’t Mark Cuban WTF?!.” Other BAYC holders quickly piled into the ensuing tweet storm & an impromptu Twitter Space was created for the community to figure out the best course of action.

The children had learned about NFTs in their elementary school’s computer science class and created the Bored Ape costumes as a part of a class project.

Yuga Labs is seeking a judgment restraining the children and their associates from “engaging in further interference with its economic relations,” as well as damages and attorneys’ fees.

BAYC community members were further enraged when one of the children, a 4 year old boy, explained to a reporter that “the internet monkey is so cute so my daddy printed it for me & put it in my room!” An anonymous profile on Twitter, belonging to a BAYC owner, commented “that’s not some internet monkey picture kid, that's intellectual property!”