A jury ruled against WWE in the lawsuit regarding the usage of Randy Orton‘s tattoos in WWE 2K video games.
Tattoo artist Catherine Alexander previously filed the lawsuit in 2018, claiming that her copyrights were being infringed upon due to the usage of her her tattoo designs WWE video games without her permission. Given that the designs are original works, she claimed that she owed the rights to them. On September 26, 2022, the case went to trial, and the jury determined that fair use was not applicable to the tattoos.
Per PWInsider, the jury agreed that the plaintiff, Alexander, was right to pursue damages over the matter, as the defendants infringed on the copyrights of her designs by using them on Orton’s in-game model. The jury decided that Alexander was only entitled to $3,750. Finally, the jury also determined that the profits for the video games were not affected by the usage of the tattoo designs.
WWE, 2K Games, Inc., 2K Sports, Inc., as well as Yuke’s Co., Ltd. and Yuke’s LA Inc., and Visual Concepts Entertainment, were named as defendants in the trial.
