New Trial Date Set In 2K Lawsuit Over Randy Orton’s Tattoos

PWInsider reports that a new trial date has been set for the civil lawsuit by tattoo artist Catherine Alexander against WWE, Take-Two Interactive Software, 2K Games, 2K Sports, Visual Concepts Entertainment, Yuke’s Co., and Yuke’s LA in the United States District Court of Southern District of Illinois. The new date is on June 1, 2020. The lawsuit is over Alexander’s tattoo work for Randy Orton, which she claims are her original designs that she owns and she never gave any of the defendants permission to put them in the WWE video games. She is suing for copyright infringement.

Anderson has said that she gave Orton his tattoos between 2003 and 2008 and that the art is “easily recognized by his fans and members of the public.” She noted before the lawsuit that she “submitted applications to register copyrights on each of the aforementioned works on March 15, 2018.” She said she previously contacted WWE about Orton’s tattoos in material sold by the company in 2009 an they offered her a $450 fee for the rights. She turned them 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 by recreating the tattoos, her rights are being infringed.

In regard to whether or not Orton has rights to the designs and gave WWE permission, she said that “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.” Orton is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The case was originally set to go to trial this year, but was pushed back with the presiding judge retired, requiring a new Judge. It was pushed back to June of next year at the request of 2K and other plaintiffs. The court said that outside of other “extraordinary circumstances” there would be no other delays.