Tattoo designer sued 2K Sports and its parent company Take-Two for their design and won the lawsuit.
Catherine Alexander filed a lawsuit in 2018, claiming that her tattoo designs appeared in WWE 2K16, WWE 2K17 and WWE 2K18 games without permission.
Tattoo involved is a tribal style work designed by Alexander for WWE superstar Randy Orton . In reality, Randy Orton tattooed it on his back and arms.
And in the "WWE 2K" game, Orton's character model also has these tattoos.
In the lawsuit of the tattoo artist, Alexander said that she had contacted the WWE Alliance in 2009 and asked to share the shares of the products surrounding Randy Orton, which contained her design works. The alliance proposed to buy out the copyright for $450, but was rejected by her.
2K defense said that tattoos in the game are used reasonably because they use these tattoos to truly restore Orton's real image, rather than directly drawing material from Alexander's design.
But the Southern Illinois District Court rejected 2K's defense in its judgment, believing that the tattoo design in the game does not constitute reasonable use and that Alexander is entitled to compensation.
judgment result is that Alexander can receive $3,750 in compensation. The court also held that because her tattoo design did not constitute a direct factor in the game's profit, she had no right to claim a share except for a fixed amount of compensation.
Although the compensation amount is not high, it has set a precedent. In this way, other tattoo designers can claim fees for tattoo patterns designed by themselves that appear in electronic games.
In 2020, Take-Two won another tattoo lawsuit. Tattoo company Solid Oak Sketches claimed that it had copyrights to the tattoos of NBA stars LeBron James , Kenyon Martin and Eric Bledsoe , and the NBA 2K game used without permission when rebuilding these character models.
But the tattoo company did not win that lawsuit because the judge found that Take-Two had been authorized to use tattoos because their agreement with the NBA included the full portrait rights of the players.
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