More Details On Lawsuit Over Randy Orton’s Tattoos In WWE 2K18

We reported last week that artist Catherine Alexander filed a lawsuit against WWE and 2K in the United States District Court of Southern District of Illinois over Randy Orton’s tattoos in WWE 2K18. She is suing for copyright infringement over the designs of the tattoos, as she has been his artist since 2003. Other defendants include Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., 2K Games, Inc., 2K Sports, Inc., Visual Concepts Entertainment, Yuke’s Co., Ltd. and Yuke’s LA Inc. Orton is not named as a defendant.

Now PWInsider has more details on the lawsuit. Anderson claims that all of her tattoos for Orton are original designs and she never gave WWE or 2K permission to use them in the games. She said that she did the work between 2003 and 2008 and they are “easily recognized by his fans and members of the public.” She added that she “submitted applications to register copyrights on each of the aforementioned works on March 15, 2018.”

She said she spoke to WWE about material with Orton’s tattoos being sold by the company in 2009 and they offered her $450 for the rights. She turned it down and “told WWE that Plaintiff did not grant any permission to WWE to copy, duplicate or otherwise use or reproduce any of Plaintiff’s designs.”

She claims that recreating the tattoos for the video game violate her copyright. She wants a jury trial and wants the court to rule that she is owed damages after WWE and others infringed. None of the defendants have responded.

She added: “Mr. Orton does not have ownership in the copyrights asserted herein and has no authority to and did not grant permission for Defendants to commit the acts complained of in this Complaint.“