In his most recent attempt to have the lawsuit brought against him by the Bored Ape Yacht Club dismissed, NFT artist Ryder Ripps encountered resistance. Ripps and his co-defendant, Jeremy Cahen, also known as "Pauly" on X, argued that the case should be dismissed on the basis of free speech in a hearing on October 17. Three judges from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth District were largely unconvinced by their arguments.

Thomas Sprankling of WilmerHale, who represents Ripps and Cahen, claimed that the fake Bored Ape NFTs were distributed and sold as a form of protest against purportedly anti-Semitic material in the Yuga Labs-produced collection. They asserted that Yuga's lawsuit should be dismissed in accordance with California's anti-SLAPP law, which was created to stop intimidating lawsuits, and positioned the NFTs as avant-garde expressions that pushed the limits of free speech.

However, the judges largely ignored arguments regarding artistic criticism in favor of secondary sales of the NFTs. Judge Morgan Christen expressed confusion over the argument after Judge Anthony Johnstone brought up the fact that the same images were sold on the same platforms with nearly identical NFT identifiers.

In July 2022, Yuga Labs first complained about Ripps and Cahen, charging them with trademark infringement, deceptive advertising, and unfair competition. They asserted that the defendants' profits after the debut of the derivative NFT collection known as RR/BAYC totaled millions of dollars.

The anti-SLAPP statute, according to Sprankling, goes beyond the requirements of the First Amendment to protect people from being subjected to speech-stifling litigation, as was allegedly the case in this instance.

On April 21, a California District Court ruled that Ripps and Cahen's RR/BAYC NFT collection had violated Yuga Lab's trademarks. Although a bench trial was held by Judge John Walter to determine damages, the case's verdict has not yet been made public.

Ripps and Cahen claimed in their anti-SLAPP motion that Yuga Labs filed the lawsuit in an effort to stifle their "protest" art and incur legal fees.