Tattoo masters sued Take-Two Interactive for copying tattoos of real basketball players in the game

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



This case is a maximalist manifestation of an attempt to protect its intellectual property. But this is not the first case when the creator or publisher of games is judged about tattoos. True, in previous cases, the parties found a common language, and agreed out of court. The new case will still be considered in court. The fact that such situations should be resolved in court is even stated in the lawsuit of Solid Oak Sketches.



"The case of violation of copyright with the tattoo should be resolved in court, because until now, numerous pre-trial agreements prevented the adoption of a decision," the lawsuit stated. Previously, they also tried to agree with Take-Two Interactive - in the summer the plaintiff requested a sum of $ 1.1 million. But the respondent decided not to pay . Now the plaintiff in court requires $ 150,000 for each copyright infringement (and this could be every sale of the game NBA 2K, many millions of copies were issued and sold). This can lead to a huge amount of the claim (damage to the plaintiff), in excess of a billion US dollars.

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



Mike Tyson, who condemned Warner Bros., made the company stop selling The Hangover: Part II, and the tattoo artist from Arizona, who sued THQ about using his tattoos in the UFC Undisputed video game, had succeeded in court in similar cases.



The case of Solid Oak Sketches mentions 5 basketball players and lists their tattoos that Take-Two Interactive illegally (according to the plaintiff) transferred to the game.