Randy Orton WWE 2K Tattoo Lawsuit Update

There has been another development in the lawsuit filed by the tattoo artist of Randy Orton against WWE & 2K.

As per PWInsider, the case now has a trial date set for September 20 at 9am ET before the US District Court Southern District of Illinois (East St Louis).

Catherine Alexander had filed the lawsuit in 2018 against World Wrestling Entertainment, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc, 2K Games Inc, 2K Sports Inc, Visual Concepts Entertainment, Yuke’s Co Ltd, and Yukes LA Inc.

She claimed that her tattoo work on Orton was her property and she didn’t give WWE or 2K permission to use it in the video games, therefore they have infringed on her copyrights.

In the lawsuit, Alexander states that Orton does not have ownership of the designs and therefore doesn’t have the rights to grant permission for them to be used.

Orton wasn’t named as a defendant in the lawsuit and has never commented publicly on the situation.

Judge Staci M Yandle ruled on September 26, 2020 that WWE and Take-Two had copied five tattoos that Alexander holds valid trademarks on.

While there’s no question that WWE copied the designs, there have been three defences laid out that a jury will decide whether it agrees with or not.

The jury will decide:

“Whether Orton was automatically granted an implied license to have his tattoos recreated via WWE’s licensed products, if they would be considered copyright infringement if Orton did not have that license, whether the tattoos would fall under “fair use” (brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder), whether the tattoos are de minmis (too trivial or minor to merit consideration legally) and whether there would be damages due to Alexander.”

We will continue to provide updates on the situation.

• wwe
• Randy Orton
• lawsuit
• Tattoos

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