Tattoo artist Catherine Alexander has won her lawsuit against2K SportsandTake-Two Interactive. Catherine originally filed the lawsuit in 2018, stating that her original designs were used in 2K16, 2K17, and 2K18 releases (She filed up to 2K18 since that was the latest release at the time of filing) of the WWE series of videogames without her permission.
As reported byVGC, the tattoo artist initially reached out to WWE in 2009 about the merchandising rights for the five tattoos she created as original designs for Randy Orton between 2003 and 2008. It’s reported that WWE offered her $450 USD for the usage rights, which at the time, she turned down.
The WWE argued that they were free to do what they liked with their wrestlers' likeness. Alexander states that she went on to file for the rights of the tattoos in 2018 before she filed the lawsuit.
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2K Sports argued that the tattoos should be considered fair use and were only used to recreate the realistic likeness of the wrestler Randy Orton. On September 26, apartial summarywas issued by an Illinois federal judge stating that “WWE and Take-Two Interactive Software, the publisher of the WWE 2K series of video games, had indeed copied her work.”
U.S. District Court Judge Staci Yandle stated, “It is unclear whether Alexander and Orton discussed permissible forms of copying and distributing the tattoo works or whether any implied license included sublicensing rights such that Orton could give permission for others to copy Alexander’s tattoo works”.
The Jury denied the fair use argument made by 2K and awarded Catherine damages in the sum of $3,750 USD. The Jury also stated that they don’t believe the use of her designs impacted the sales of WWE 2K16, 2K17 and 2K18. Thus denying her any share of the profits made from the sales of the game.
Although the amount awarded to Catherine may seem small for all the trouble she went through, it is a major event as far as trademark and fair use laws go. This is not the first time 2K has had a suit filed against them for tattoos. In 2020Solid Oak Sketches filed a suitover the original designs they created for multiple NBA athletes, notably LeBron James. 2K and Take Two won that lawsuit using the defense of fair use.
