CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, February 02, 2016

'NBA 2K' Videogame Maker Sued for Copyright Infringement Over LeBron James' Tattoos

Hollywood Reporter: Take-Two Software is taken to court by a company that demanded more than $1.1 million for a license to eight tattoo designs.

A new lawsuit addresses an uncertain legal issue that's been stained in the minds of the public ever since Mike Tyson's tattoo artist sued in 2011 to stop the release of Hangover 2.

1 comment:

Alex Fasciolo said...

This case is really interesting, not because it’s an IP problem (God knows we have a lot of those) but because of the fresh twist on the IP problem that this case (and those like it) have, most notably the fact that the owner of the content can be argued to be both the tattoo artist or the person who is the art. At what point to the tattoos become a part of LeBron’s likeness, such that it becomes a matter of his image? Is there some common ground where both LeBron and the tattoo artist both have rights to the tattoos? Does the tattoo artist, just for rendering a service, assume some of the rights to LeBron’s likeness now? I truly don’t know, and just the prospect of those questions kinda make my head hurt, but I feel like it’s something that there should be precedent over already. Or maybe that’s just because we live in a world where there are more people sue than there were just a few decades ago. Either way, it should prove interesting.