It was reported on March 21 that the BAYC derivative NFT series Caked Apes was launched in January this year. There are 49 colored Caked Apes listed on NFT marketplace OpenSea, these NFTs have 4 owners, but there is no price information on OpenSea and CryptoSlam.
The teams behind the series are now suing each other over character designs and revenue sharing. A lawsuit has reportedly been filed in federal court in Los Angeles. Taylor Whitley, who owns 11 BAYC NFTs, filed a lawsuit late last week alleging that the Caked Apes team violated digital design rights and expelled him from the project.
In addition, Jacob Nygard and three other owners of the Caked Apes collection filed a lawsuit on March 20, alleging that Whitley attempted to claim ownership of their joint venture. Whitley is also accused of abusing federal copyright laws in an attempt to take these NFTs off the market.
On March 21, the Caked Apes team tweeted a message: “Whitley, as soon as he saw the spike in sales of Caked Apes, tried to breach our agreement and demand a larger share without a legal or ethical basis. And, according to Whitley, any licenses he granted to a former partner at Caked Apes were revoked because his digital art agency never received an “agreed portion of revenue.” According to the lawsuit, nearly 9,000 Caked Apes NFTs were sold, generating $1.9 million in direct sales and $225,000 in royalties on secondary sales.
