Take-Two Interactive & Visual Concepts Sued By Tattoo Artists

[jfsolo]

Some of the tattoos seen on LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kenyon Martin, DeAndre Jordan and Eric Bledsoe are getting Take-Two Interactive and Visual Concepts into some hot water. Based off of articles from ESPN (Darren Rovell) and The HollyWoodReporter (Eriq Gardner), the makers of the NBA 2K series are getting sued for $1.1 million, because Solid Oak Sketches claims the tattoos are their copyrighted work.

Quote:

Worried that they might be party to a lawsuit, the NFL Players Association told players in 2014 that, in order for their tattoos to be represented on merchandise, including video games, they needed to get waivers from the artists.

This is one of the main reasons other companies don't put tattoos in their game. Getting permission from the tattoo artist can take quite a bit of time. The Madden team had to go through that process to get the tattoos for Colin Kaepernick (Madden NFL 15) and Odell Beckham, Jr. (Madden NFL 16) in the game.

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In a demand letter to Take-Two before the lawsuit was filed, an attorney for the plaintiff took the $22,500 award to Escobedo, and using information about NBA 2K16 sales, calculated that the value for the eight tattoos should be $572,000. But there was also the matter that two of LeBron James tattoos were featured on the cover of the videogame. According to the letter, "Given that those two tattoos are 'the face' of the 2014 game, their marketing and promotion value is, conservatively, at least four times the value of the rest of the tattoos." Thus, the claimed value of using all of the tattoo designs in question allegedly equals $819,500. That tattoo design company offered a perpetual license for a fee of $1,144,000.

You can read the full complaint at The Hollywood Reporter.

[redsox4evur]

8 tattoos could cost them 1.1 million...

[Mbunn1993]

Quote: Originally Posted by redsox4evur

8 tattoos could cost them 1.1 million...

Pocket change for them

[jvalverde88]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mbunn1993

Pocket change for them

Not when in comes to making the NBA 2K.

[Junior Moe]

Damn! I love NBA2K but right is right. Should have just paid the 1.1 and got their license and permission.

[NINJAK2]

This is sad development imo. This could be the start of tattoos being removed from players entirely for 2k17. Paying for rights to: the NBA, Shoe comepanies, Retired NBA players, Euroleague, and now tats. These games are getting as expensive as hell..2k would have to get authorization or pay for every tattoo featured on these players? Would this be the same for NBA Live?

[KingMansaMusa]

Quote: Originally Posted by NINJAK2

This is sad development imo. This may be the start of tattoos being removed from players entirely for 2k17. Paying for rights to: the NBA, Shoe comepanies, Retired NBA players, Euroleague, and now tats. These games are getting as expensive as hell..

Aye let them deal with it, I have no sympathy for these companies, you think they don't know everything their doing.

[TheDuggler]

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Tattoo artist Victor Escobedo was awarded $22,500 for his lion tattoo that was portrayed on UFC fighter Carlos Condit without his permission in THQ's "UFC Undisputed" game. Escobedo had originally asked for $4.1 million.

Don't overreact just yet


This is just a money grab, as if they are suffering any damages from this realistically

Its kind of nuts to say that a tattoo artists owns the likeness of a tattoo placed on someones body. I wonder if the NBA has to get special permission every time an athlete gets a new tat. That would be a nightmare for them, these guys have thousands of tattoos from different artists.