Judge Laura Taylor Swain recently denied a motion for judgment
on the pleadings filed by Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., a
video game developer, publisher and marketer, and its wholly owned
subsidiary, 2K Games, Inc. (together "Take-Two"). The
lawsuit accuses Take-Two of committing copyright infringement due
to its use of various tattoos (registered with the U.S. Copyright
Office), in a popular series of basketball simulation video games.
The tattoos at issue in this case are displayed on LeBron James,
Eric Bledsoe and Kenyon Martin, all of whom are inked with these
same tattoos in real life.
Take-Two's motion asserted that the case should be
terminated because any use of the tattoos in its video games were
de minimis and also qualify as fair use. The Court
rejected both arguments at this stage of the litigation and held
that it required more information concerning how the games are
generally played and how game features are utilized to determine
the
