Court documents reveal that Bored Ape Yacht Club’s (BAYC) parent company Yuga Labs does not have any copyright registrations for images in the collection. The information comes from court filings in the case between Yuga Labs and artist Ryder Ripps.

Ripps used images from the famous NFT collection in his own NFT collection called RR/BAYC. Yuga Labs has sued Ripps for various reasons, including false advertising, trademark infringement, and cybersquatting. The parent company of BAYC has not sued Ripps for copyright reasons.

It’s an interesting development in the case, which sparked a lot of discussion regarding the copyright nature of the apes. The court filing reads,“Registration of a copyright is not required to own one; it is required to file suit on one. The Court should not wade into whether Yuga Labs has a copyright in its Bored Ape images, because such an opinion would be merely advisory; Yuga Labs does not have a registered copyright, and there is therefore no imminent threat of a lawsuit for copyright infringement.”