Yuga Labs Grants Owners of CryptoPunks & Meebits NFTs Full IP Rights‍

Owners of CryptoPunks and Meebits may now enjoy a long-awaited moment as Yuga Labs this week officially granted IP rights for both collections. The release provides complete commercial and personal rights to the holders of those NFTs, which they can use for any purpose.

Holders of both collections are granted full commercialization rights under the licensing agreement to develop goods and projects based on their NFTs. Owners of CryptoPunks and Meebits will be allowed to utilize their NFTs to create projects like "TV programs, food trucks, apparel, and more - much like the Bored Ape Yacht Club community has been able to accomplish," according to Yuga.

For instance, Andy Nguyen and Snoop Dogg collaborated to open a Bored Ape NFT-Themed Dessert Restaurant‍ in June. Seth Green is also launching a television series based on his recently-returned ape.

Although Yuga Labs owns the rights, it licenses the IP to NFT holders. The former owners of the collection, Larva Labs, handled IP licensing differently and kept the rights to the collections' intellectual property, much to the dismay of many holders.

A few authors have developed several strategies for handling intellectual property rights. This month, well-known brand Moonbirds adopted the Creative Commons CC0 copyright code and converted it to a public domain usage model.

This allows for the replication and commercial use of artwork from both Oddities and Moonbirds. In the end, the move backfired on social media as owners claimed they had invested in the project believing they had exclusive rights to their NFT.

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