A tattoo artist won a copyright infringement lawsuit against WWE and the developers of the WWE 2K video game series. The court found that the defendants had utilized the artist’s tattoos for Randy Orton in the games without permission.
PWInsider reported on Friday that a US District Court Southern District of Illinois jury agreed with plaintiff Catherine Alexander that the defendants had not shown that the tattoos were fair use. Alexander was awarded a total of $3,750 by the jury for the use of her ideas in the game, but this amount was reduced due to two additional verdicts.
Randy Orton’s Tattoo Artists Sues WWE, 2K Games For Stealing Designs https://t.co/erZ32Xkg7v
— TMZ (@TMZ) April 18, 2018
WWE, 2K series publisher Take-Two Interactive Software, 2K Games, Inc., and 2K Sports, Inc., as well as developers Visual Concepts Entertainment, Yuke’s Co., Ltd., and Yuke’s LA Inc., were all named as defendants in the case.
On September 26, Judge Staci M. Yandle determined that WWE and Take-Two had infringed on five of Alexander’s tattoos that she had trademarked. A jury was asked to evaluate Alexander’s damages after he was refused a summary judgment.
In her initial 2018 lawsuit, Alexander claimed that she was responsible for the tattoos on Orton, which were done between 2003 and 2008. She said that she had approached WWE before and that they had given her $450 for the rights to use her art in promotional materials. The lawsuit claims that she turned down the offer and “told WWE that Plaintiff did not provide any authority to WWE to copy, duplicate, or otherwise utilize or reproduce any of Plaintiff’s designs.”
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