Lil Yachty has agreed to resolve a legal dispute with an NFT vendor who was accused of using his brand and image to generate millions of dollars in sales.
According to Rolling Stone, the case, which was brought in January 2023 for “trademark infringement” against the NFT platform Opulous, was resolved on Tuesday (April 11).
The parties were allowed 45 days to “confirm the settlement in writing and file a dismissal of the action,” even though the settlement’s precise details were kept a secret.
Court documents obtained by RS read: “Of course, it is axiomatic that in order to offer the ownership interest to any musician’s copyrighted work, defendant, Opulous, must first have the agreement and consent of the musician at issue to sell the copyright to his or her work, with the musician in turn entitled to a share of the proceeds from the sale thereof.”
The Georgia native claims in a complaint filed earlier this year that Opulous advertised their “Lil Yachty NFT Collection” using his name and trademark without his consent.
The rapper discovered that Opulous had reportedly raised $6.5 million after providing “exclusive launch content,” but Yachty didn’t receive any of the proceeds. According to rumors, Yachty and Opulous’s creator Lee James Parsons only spoke on conference calls.
Yet, it is claimed that no arrangement or agreement was mentioned in these talks. Yet, it appears that the NFT corporation utilized the rapper’s photographs for commercial purposes.
More Lil Yatchy news includes the rapper’s long-awaited musical debut on Saturday Night Live, when he performed two songs from his most recent album.
The 25-year-old rapper recently paid a visit to NBC’s renowned 30 Rockefeller Plaza studio in New York City, where he performed the songs “drive ME crazy!” and “the BLACK seminole” off his fifth studio album, Let’s Start Here, with singer-songwriter Diana Gordon.
Yachty donned a low-key costume for his performance for “the BLACK seminole,” singing the classic rock-influenced song using a pitch-correction microphone.
“What’s wrong? What’s wrong, Mr. Man/ Your eyes are low/ And you’re walking with both hands on your head/ His response, he’s on a clean, clean high/ Both feet up on the ground/ But his head’s way, way, way in the sky,” Lil Yachty sang.
Lil Yachty returned to the stage with Gordon for his performance of “drive ME crazy!” while wearing an enormous Eskimo hat, a semi-loose long sleeve shirt, and shorts. Over the joyful theme, Gordon began the performance with a vocal arrangement that resembled yodeling.
Yachty then rose to the occasion musically and sang his stanza in a manner like the late Prince Be of P.M. Dawn.
