The WWE may own their wrestlers’ likenesses to produce toys and video games, but when individual elements of those likenesses inspire new products, a federal judge says the water is a little more murky.
Randy Orton’s tattoo artist sued the WWE for copying her work. The company, along with video game developer Take Two Interactive sold downloadable versions of wrestlers’ body art to be used to customize created characters in the game. A federal court in Illinois ruled that the case could proceed to trial.
Catherine Alexander, the tattoo artist, says that initially a WWE lawyer laughed at her request to negotiate for compensation. The company’s position was that there was no legal basis for Alexander’s demands.
Judge Staci Yandle dismissed the WWE’s request for a summary judgement. She believes that there are certain parts of this case that should be heard at trial. It will be the first ever copyright trial centered on the unauthorized reproduction of tattoos.
The implications for sports, players associations, and the video game industry could be huge. Take Two Interactive, who produces the WWE 2K video game series, has been through a version of this trial before though.
In March of 2019, a ruled against a company claiming to own the designs of tattoos on LeBron James, Kenyon Martin and Eric Bledsoe. It sued Take Two Interactive for copyright infringement for using the designs in the studio’s NBA 2K series. A judge ruled in favor of Take Two, saying that on the video game, the designs were too small to bare a reasonable likeness to the ones the plaintiff owned.
What exactly is different in the WWE case is unclear. Is it because the tattoos are being sold as their own products? Is it that WWE 2K offers more high definition graphics and the tattoos more clearly resemble Alexander’s artwork?
For the record, Randy Orton was taken aback by Catherine Alexander’s lawsuit. In a declaration presented to the court, he said that he believed that once the designs were on his body, they were part of his image. He was not aware that he or anyone else would need permission to reproduce them.
