Solid Oak Sketches is suing Take-Two Interactive and Visual Concepts, the makers of popular video-game franchise "NBA2K," for graphically representing the tattoos on NBA players without its permission, in a suit which was filed Monday (local time) in a New York District Court.
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The video game series is normally praised for their attention to detail with the producers working hard to imitate player likenesses in their games, from the way they look and play to the gear they wear.
However, the makers have found themselves in a sticky situation after being hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit that alleges they're using several players' tattoos in the game without permission.
Solid Oak Sketches claims the companies have used eight of their tattoos in its basketball video games.
The alleged breach includes James' "Child Portrait on his inner left forearm" and "330 Area Code on his right forearm."
Kobe Bryant's "crown with Butterflies on his right bicep" is also among the tattoos in dispute, as are illustrations on Kenyon Martin, DeAndre Jordan and Eric Bledsoe.
The company claims they offered the license to Take-Two and Visual Concepts for US$1.14 million, but instead they released the game without licensing.
The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction, which may obstruct Take-Two from selling further copies of the game as well as damages of as much as US$150,000 per violation.
EA Sports has kept away from adding players tattoos in their recent releases of the Madden series unless the player has sort out a waiver from the artist.
The extent of the misuse of the art is up to the courts to decide however the idea that illustration on your own body can be claimed as the property of someone else is a topic of debate.
