The creators of the perhaps the world’s most famous NFT collection, The Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs, have just completed the purchase of IP for perhaps the second most famous NFT collection, The CryptoPunks!
Yuga Labs’ first move as the CryptoPunk’s IP holder, is to grant full commercial rights to individual NFT holders:
“With this acquisition Yuga Labs will own the CryptoPunks and Meebit brands and logos, and as they’ve done with their own BAYC collection, Yuga Labs will transfer IP, commercial and exclusive licensing rights to individual NFT holders”.
Yuga’s decision to give BAYC IP to holders has prompted a number of exciting moves including the inception of numerous projects, even including ‘metaverse bands’ with Bored Apes as band members.
On the flipside, Larva has come into conflict with its NFT holders over refusal to transfer commercial rights. Some holders even abandoned the project over the controversy.
Yuga has since stressed that their absolute focus will still be the BAYC ecosystem, and they have no immediate plans to do anything but give IP to the CryptoPunk holders and see what they do with it!
https://decrypt.co/94898/bored-ape-yacht-club-yuga-labs-cryptopunks-larva-labs