Yuga Labs, the creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has found itself in the middle of yet another controversy. This time, the company has been accused of intellectual property theft for allegedly illegally registering its BAKC wolf skull logo. Easy Drawing Tutorial, a company that focuses on drawing tutorials for kids, reportedly originally released the logo in April 2021.
Here’s everything you need to know about the IP theft allegations against Yuga Labs:
Yuga Labs Accused of IP Theft: What Happened?
from BAYC Bored Apes Kennel Club The collection, released on June 17, 2021, features a wolf skull in its logo. On November 15, 2021, Yuga Labs applied to trademark the logo. However, the logo bears a striking resemblance to the wolf skull drawing from Easy Drawing Tutorial. In fact, the company posted an image of the drawing on Twitter three months before Yuga Labs launched BAKC.
The similarity was first spotted by Twitter user Colombo. Taking note of the tweet, the original creator of the drawing, Easy Drawing Tutorial responded:
Thanks for mentioning this @Jdotcolombo. @yugalabs is not licensed to draw the wolf skull. The intellectual property rights of the drawing belong to Easy Drawing Guides, as it is our original drawing and is protected by our Terms and Conditions”.
BAKC logo to change
As Colombo’s February 17 tweet began to gain attention, Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solano released a statement the next day. In a tweet, Solano called the claims “news” for the team. The team also contacted the freelancer who created the logo, as well as Easy Drawing Tutorial.
“We will change the logo and update it on our site/ask markets to change as well,” Solano added. “From the beginning, this collection was aimed at raising money for charity and I’m proud of the fact that BAKC raised over $1 million for animal charities.”
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