All investment/financial opinions expressed by NFTevening.com are not recommendations.
This article is educational material.
As always, do your own research before making any kind of investment.
Cease-and-Desist NFT issued to Grumpy Cat Memecoin Creator
Cease and desist NFT conflicts are happening more often than ever, and the latest one comes from Grumpy Cat. The viral meme NFT and brand owners issued an official letter against Twitter user SlumDoge Millionaire who promoted the $GRUMPYCAT token. Accordingly, the OG Grumpy Cat brand did not authorize the use of its trademarks. The result? A new accusation of copyright infringement.
Why did Grumpy Cat send a “Case-and-Desist” NFT letter?
Iconic pet meme Grumpy Cat has officially launched a legal battle against Web3 creator @ProTheDoge (SlumDoge Millionaire) for IP infringement. The story began on May 22, when Grumpy Cat’s official Twitter page posted a formal letter addressed to SlumDoge. Here is the document:
Essentially, Grumpy Cat accused SlumDoge Millionaire of using their copyright illegally to promote a web3 token. The digital coin called $GRUMPYCAT has allegedly been marketed without the permission of the original Grumpy Cat team.
According to Twitter NFT collector @BenLashes, SlumDoge Millionaire blocked Grumpy Cat shortly after the announcement. Nevertheless, the legal battle is just beginning.
IP Copyright: Why are they so important in the NFT space?
Intellectual property has been crucial to content creators for decades. However, this issue is now heavily debated in the NFT market, which has lacked regulation until now.
One of the biggest IP rights lawsuits in the web3 world is Yuga Labs’ case against Ryder Ripps. In short, Ryder Ripps had allegedly used Yuga Labs’ intellectual property on BAYC for his own NFT project titled RR/BAYC. In the end, Yuga Labs won the lawsuit.
A similar example of a stop-and-avoid NFT involves the luxury fashion brand Hermes. The company accused artist Mason Rothschild of copyright infringement for his NFT collection titled MetaBirkins. The collectibles were a slightly modified version of Hermes’ iconic bag line, the Birkin. For now, the trial is still ongoing.
To conclude, IP rights should now be taken as seriously in the web3 world as they are IRL.
