A significant Ninth Circuit decision in which the court held for the first time that nonfungible tokens can qualify as trademarks on behalf of Fenwick client Yuga Labs, Inc. was featured in Law360’s top trademark decisions of 2025.
The decision centers around Yuga Labs’ well-known Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, whose purchasers include Justin Bieber and Snoop Dogg. Yuga Labs filed a trademark infringement suit accusing artists Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen of creating and selling lookalike Bored Ape NFTs.
The Ninth Circuit agreed with Yuga Labs, stating that “Yuga’s NFTs are not merely monkey business and can be trademarked.” The decision underscores the narrowing of the so-called Rogers test in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC. Echoing that precedent, the Ninth Circuit emphasized that exceptions for expressive works do not apply when an alleged infringer uses someone else’s trademark to identify their own product.
Practitioners noted to Law360 that the Yuga Labs ruling may signal higher infringement risks when commentary or parody is commercialized, and that it may carry significance for other emerging technologies beyond just NFTs.
Read the full article at Law360.