Tattoo artists sue Take-Two Interactive for copying tattoos of real basketball players in the game

Protecting one's intellectual property is in many cases necessary. However, very often in this area there are curious events from the series “you can’t imagine it on purpose”. Now this is exactly the situation - tattoo artists who apply tattoos to the skin of such privileged NBA players as LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and others are suing Take-Two Interactive . The reason - the company that develops games has placed exactly the same tattoos on the skin of virtual copies of basketball players in the NBA 2K game as those of real players. The basketball players in question are served by Solid Oak Sketches, and she owns all rights to the tattoos created by the artists. Thus, the lawsuit has solid grounds.

This case is a maximalist manifestation of an attempt to protect one's intellectual property. But this is not the first time that a creator or publisher of games is suing tattoos. True, in previous cases, the parties found a common language, and agreed outside the court. A new case will still be considered in court. The fact that such situations should be resolved in court is even mentioned in the Solid Oak Sketches lawsuit.

“The case of copyright infringement with a tattoo should be resolved in court, since so far numerous pre-trial agreements have hindered the decision,” the lawsuit said. They also tried to agree with Take-Two Interactive earlier - in the summer, the plaintiff requested an amount of $ 1.1 million. But the defendant decided not to pay. Now the plaintiff in court requires $ 150 thousand for each case of copyright infringement (and this may be every sale of the NBA 2K game, many millions were issued and sold). This can lead to a huge amount of claim (damage to the plaintiff) in excess of a billion US dollars.

The plaintiff requires the court to prohibit the defendant in terms of the further use of tattoos of the company's masters. This means that in the worst case, the defendant will have to recall the game.

Mike Tyson, who sued Warner Bros. forcing the company to stop selling The Hangover: Part II, and a tattoo artist from Arizona, who sued THQ for using his tattoos in a UFC Undisputed video game, had previously been successful in similar cases.

The Solid Oak Sketches lawsuit mentions 5 basketball players and gives a list of their tattoos, which Take-Two Interactive illegally (according to the plaintiff) transferred to the game.