Quoted

April 3rd, 2022

Caked Ape Lawsuits Show Need for Clear Contracts in NFT Art

Blockchain Technology Co-Chair Jeremy S. Goldman was quoted in the article, “Caked Ape Lawsuits Show Need for Clear Contracts in NFT Art” published by Bloomberg Law. The article discusses two lawsuits over Caked Ape non-fungible tokens. Members of the Caked Ape NFT art project are suing each other based on financial agreements made over text messages. Artist Taylor Whitley claimed the project’s other founders infringed his copyrighted art by cutting him out of the project and his share of the NFT sales. Jeremy is quoted saying, “Part of the dispute will hinge on the type of copyright license Whitley claims to have” and adds, “The case is novel because the assets in question are based on an emerging technology, even though this type of contract and copyright dispute has been litigated thousands of times.”

Jeremy notes, “A written contract won’t completely eliminate the possibility of litigation.” He said that lawsuits are most likely when an expensive project fails and members start pointing fingers, or when a project is successful and members fight over how the money is divided. In conclusion Jeremy adds, “But I think you can avoid a tremendous amount of disputes and low-hanging fruit, not even necessarily by having lawyers at the beginning” and “You shouldn’t engage in a project that has upside potential without having those hard discussions with other members about what the deal is and putting it in writing.”

Read the full article here.