The iconic wolf skull logo of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Yuga Labs’ flagship collection of nonfungible tokens (NFTs), is allegedly an illegal trademark without a proper license. These images were originally released by a company dedicated to drawing tutorials for children and beginners.
NFT was introduced around the world to help tackle the illegal use of intellectual property and protect artists – a problem that Yuga Labs is working on. Crypto Twitter member and NFT artist @Jdotcolombo met a post as of April 5, 2021, in Easy Drawing Guide advertises “easy step-by-step drawing tutorial” for a wolf skull.
The art displayed by the company is very similar to the official BAYC logo, which initially raised suspicions of wrongdoing – as the BAYC Kennel Club collection was launched on June 17, 2021.
Bro @BoredApeYC @yugalabs any joke bahahahahaha you have some explanation. 4/5/21 and your kennels come out 6/21 and you go and trademark this skull. Are you ok or have you hit your head? https://t.co/HiLFdbnFL5 pic.twitter.com/FJigzJgBr8
— COLOMBO (@Jdotcolombo) February 17, 2023
Easy Drawing Guides responded to the uproar to confirm that Yuga Labs does not have a license to use the wolf skull image. Going further, Yuga Labs trademarked its unlicensed logo. In return, Easy Drawing Guides stated:
“Intellectual property rights for these images belong to Easy Image Guide as the images are original and protected by our Terms and Conditions.”
Cointelegraph confirms that the Easy Drawing Guide terms and conditions grant you a non-transferable, non-exclusive, revocable, limited license to use and access the website for personal, non-commercial use only.
On the one hand, BAYC supporters believe that no intellectual property is being violated when using the logo, but most agree that Easy Image Guide deserves serious compensation.
Yuga Labs has not yet responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
related: Yuga Labs settles lawsuit with developer involved in BAYC copycat
Intellectual property dilemmas are not new to Yuga Labs. One of the founders of the BAYC copycat NFT collection RR / BAYC filed a notice of opposition against 10 trademark applications from Yuga Labs.
In the news, RR/BAYC co-founder Jeremy Cahen highlighted a list of “reasons of opposition” to Yuga Labs’ filing – claiming that the company “relinquishes any rights” to certain logo designs and artwork as the sale of BAYC NFTs gives it “all. rights” digital image for the owner.