Creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club Acquire Intellectual Rights to CryptoPunks

Yuga Labs, the company behind one of the largest and most valuable NFT collections in the industry, Bored Ape Yacht Club, announced on Saturday that it has acquired the intellectual property rights to the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections from Larva Labs.

The first step for Yuga Labs is granting full commercial licenses to the owners of CryptoPunks and Meebits, according to the company’s statement.

– With this acquisition, Yuga Labs will own the CryptoPunks and Meebit brands and logos, and as they did with their own BAYC collection, Yuga Labs will transfer IP, commercial, and exclusive licensing rights to individual NFT owners – stated Yuga Labs in the announcement.

Yuga Labs, which launched the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection in April last year, previously granted all Bored Ape NFT owners a full license to use the images they own for any commercial purpose. Entrepreneurs, brands, and celebrities quickly capitalized on the BAYC phenomenon and launched various initiatives, including an advertising campaign for Arizona iced tea and a “Metaverse band” inspired by Gorillaz from Universal Music Group.

Larva Labs, the creators of the CryptoPunks collection, did not want to grant the same type of commercial license to their NFT owners, which became a source of controversy among CryptoPunks investors. As a result, several prominent owners left the project, including the pseudonymous “punk4156”, who stated in December that the intellectual property dispute was what led to his sale of CryptoPunks NFTs worth $10 million.

The NFT market exploded over the past year, with over $23 billion in trading volume in 2021, according to DappRadar data. The boom was largely driven by collections like Bored Apes and CryptoPunks, whose floor prices today are around 96 ($250,000) and 69 ($180,000) ether, respectively.

Yuga Labs, however, emphasized in its announcement that their focus will remain on Bored Apes.

– To be clear: the BAYC ecosystem will remain the center of our universe. We believe that what is good for Punks is good for Apes and the rest of the space. Likewise, what is good for Apes is good for Punks. We want to grow the pie, not fight over slices – tweeted Yuga Labs.

As for what exactly is in store for CryptoPunks now that the IP will be controlled by Yuga Labs, the pseudonymous co-founders of the company were not specific.

– We are not rushing to do anything except give people their IP, see what they build, and listen – they stated in the announcement.