Yuga Labs Officially Releases IP Rights Tied to Cryptopunks, Meebits NFTs — Galaxy Digital Report Criticizes BAYC License

Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) non-fungible token (NFT) collection, has officially released the intellectual property (IP) rights tied to the Cryptopunks and Meebits NFTs. The company acquired the IP rights to the NFT collections in mid-March 2022, and owners can use their NFTs for commercial or personal purposes.

On March 12, 2022, Bitcoin.com News reported on the Cryptopunks and Meebits non-fungible token (NFT) collections being acquired by Yuga Labs. The firm Yuga Labs is the company behind the blue-chip NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), and when the startup acquired Meebits and Cryptopunks, it promised to release the IP rights in the same way as it did with BAYC NFTs. Bored Apes, Cryptopunks, and Meebits are popular NFT collections today and they command some of the highest NFT floor values.

BAYC’s floor value today is 69.42 ETH, Cryptopunks’ floor is roughly 65.5 ETH, and the cheapest Meebits today is much lower than the Cryptopunks and BAYC collections with a 3.3 ETH floor value. People have used their Bored Apes for commercial and personal use. For instance, Snoop Dogg and Eminem leveraged their BAYC NFT avatars to make a video for the duo’s single called “From the D 2 The LBC,” which was nominated for a VMA.

Similarly, with the Meebits and Cryptopunks NFT collections, owners have the IP rights to use the NFTs for commercial or personal use cases.

Meebits for instance, are already utilized in a number of virtual worlds, applications, and games. Cryptopunks NFTs were recently used by the luxury jewelry and specialty retailer Tiffany & Co. to sell jeweled pendants tied to the NFTs. When Yuga Labs released the IP rights, the co-founders Gordon Goner and Gargamel explained that the company “delivered on a promise” they made to Cryptopunks and Meebits holders.

“IP rights for your NFT. This massive step forward unlocks endless possibilities for creativity and ingenuity, which Meebs and Punks aren’t lacking in the slightest,” the co-founders said in a statement sent to Bitcoin.com News. “We believe that this type of freedom is a critical part of web3, and truly celebrates the founding principles of Yuga Labs: ownership, decentralization, and innovation.”

In addition to Yuga Labs, the official Cryptopunks Twitter page tweeted about the IP rights release. The Twitter account @cryptopunksnfts said:

Punks, the IP rights agreement for the CryptoPunks collection is now live and can be found at https://licenseterms.cryptopunks.app. This moment is something we’ve promised from day one and we’re looking forward to seeing what the community builds, using the terms as guidance.

Meanwhile, following the IP rights release on August 15, a newly published Galaxy Digital NFT research report called “A Survey of NFT Licenses: Facts & Fictions” criticizes Yuga Labs’ IP license assigned to BAYC, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), and Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) NFTs.

“The license provided by Yuga to holders of BAYC, MAYC, and BAKC NFTs contains critical contradictions which reinforce our finding that license agreements struggle with properly transferring IP to NFT holders,” the Galaxy report says.

Although, the Galaxy Digital researchers Alex Thorn, Michael Marcantonio, and Gabe Parker detail that the new IP licenses for the Meebits and Cryptopunks NFT collections are clearer.

“While the BAYC license is unclear and potentially misleading, newer licenses from Yuga Labs including the new Cryptopunks and Meebits licenses are significantly more professional and explicit in the ownership and license terms,” Galaxy Digital’s researchers detail in Friday’s blog post. “At this point, given the disparity between Yuga’s BAYC license and its newer licenses, it’s unclear whether Yuga Labs intends to confer identical commercial use rights to holders of Apes and Punks.”

What do you think about Yuga Labs releasing the IP rights to the Cryptopunks and Meebits NFT collections? What do you think about Galaxy Digital’s report concerning BAYC’s IP license? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.