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WWE and 2K each filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit brought against them by tattoo artist Catherine Alexander in the United States District Court of Southern District of Illinois yesterday.
Anderson sued each party back in April, alleging that they are infringing on her copyright for tattoo designs that she has imprinted on Randy Orton, having been his tattoo artist since 2003. Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., 2K Games, Inc., 2K Sports, Inc., Visual Concepts Entertainment, Yuke’s Co., Ltd. and Yuke’s LA Inc. have also been named defendants in Alexander's lawsuit.
Alexander has claimed that all of her tattoo work on Orton are her original designs and that she has never given any of the defendants permission to recreate them in the WWE videogames. Alexander stated that she performed the tattoo work on Orton between 2003 and 2008 and that "are easily recognized by his fans and members of the public." She also noted that, in advance of the lawsuit obviously, she "submitted applications to register copyrights on each of the aforementioned works on March 15, 2018."
In her lawsuit, Alexander claimed that she contacted WWE regarding material featuring Orton's tattoos being sold by the company in 2009 and they offered her a $450 fee for the rights to the designs, which she turned down and at the time, "told WWE that Plaintiff did not grant any permission to WWE to copy, duplicate or otherwise use or reproduce any of Plaintiff’s designs." Alexander has claimed that by recreating the tattoos in the WWE videogames, the rights to her designs are being infringed upon.
In regard to the obvious question, which is whether Randy Orton had rights to the designs and gave WWE permission, Alexander alleges in the lawsuit 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 has not been named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Alexander had requested a jury trial and is seeking the court to rule that the tattoos are her copyrighted works and that the defendants infringed against her, and obviously, wants the court to rule that she is owed damages.
In the response filed on 7/9, they 2K argued the lawsuit should be dismissed for several reasons, including that Alexander has not obtained copyright registrations on any of the designs that she has claimed to own.
2K noted that "Statutory damages and attorney’s fees are only available where the works were registered before the infringement occurred or within three months of their publication. Accordingly, statutory damages and attorney’s fees are unavailable to Plaintiff as a matter of law," basically stating that since Alexander had not filed copyrights on the designs within the allowed timeframe, she cannot retroactively claim damages. Since Alexander states in her lawsuit that she does not own those copyrights, the lawsuit must be dismissed for not meeting the standard of the law.
2K also alleged that Anderson's complaint "does not satisfy Federal Rule 8(a)’s requirement that pleadings put defendants on notice of the claims lodged against them. Plaintiff does not adequately describe the works allegedly infringed, nor does she provide photographs of these works, so as to put Defendants on notice of her purported rights. Plaintiff’s allegations vaguely group together all seven Defendants, which fails to give each Defendant fair notice of its alleged infringing conduct. And Plaintiff fails to plead facts supporting vicarious or contributory copyright infringement, including failing to indicate which Defendants are charged with committing which types of infringement. The conclusory, vague allegations in Plaintiff’s Complaint do not meet the federal pleading requirements, and her copyright infringement claim thus fails as a matter of law."
Meanwhile, WWE's filing yesterday claimed that the lawsuit against them should be dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction, providing a 22-page memorandum to the court that claimed Alexander has failed to prove that the court in Illinois has any jurisdiction over WWE, given they are incorporated in Delaware and are headquartered in Connecticut. WWE also argued that Alexander would have to demonstrate "specific activities that WWE has supposedly undertaken in Illinois with respect to the claims at issue" to the court in order for WWE to fall under Illinois jurisdiction and has not done that. WWE stated while they have purchased "limited quantities" of the WWE 2K videogames to sell on their website, that "cannot establish specific jurisdiction over WWE."
Alexander, obviously, has yet to respond to the motions.
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