Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) NFT collection, is set to change its logo after being exposed for stealing the design from another artist. This comes as a surprise to many since the company specializes in issuing unique digital works. The BAKC collection is the third most popular project by Yuga Labs after the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), with a valuation of over $115 million.
BAKC utilizes a wolf skull image for its logo. It turns out the image was originally designed by Easy Drawing Tutorial, a resource that educates individuals on how to draw images of different animals and objects. It took Twitter user “COLOMBO” to notice the resemblance between the image and the BAKC logo. He would proceed to call out Yuga Labs, with Easy Drawing Tutorial being grateful for the gesture.
Later on, Greg Solano, cofounder of Yuga Labs, would acknowledge the mistake but point the finger at the individual the company hired to design the logo. It turns out Yuga Labs sought the services of a freelance designer to help out with the logo but never did any background checks.
Yuga Labs To Remove And Replace BAKC Logo
Solano notes that they would be removing and replacing the logo from their website, and they would ask NFT marketplaces to do the same. Additionally, they had opened an investigation into the breach of intellectual property and contacted both the freelancer in question and Easy Drawing Tutorial.
Further investigation reveals that the image was created by Easy Drawing Tutorial in the first week of April 2021. But the BAKC collection was launched in the third week of June 2021.
According to Solano, the BAKC collection wasn’t meant for profit but to raise funds for animal charities. Since its launch in June 2021, the collection has raised over $1 million for these charities. However, the collection’s website notes that only fees collected from secondary sales within the first six weeks would be donated. That means Yuga Labs has been profiting off the collection since August 2021.
