Kathleen Wills Associate

A jury in the Northern District of Ohio found that defendants 2K Games, Inc. and Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. had an implied license to recreate NBA players’ tattoos in the avatars of the video game NBA 2K. This is a summary of the April 19, 2024, decision and an examination of the intersection of copyright law, tattoos, and video games.

A federal jury in California on January 26, 2024, found that TV-famous tattoo artist Katherine Von Drachenberg (Kat Von D) did not infringe plaintiff Jeffrey Sedlik’s copyrighted photo of jazz artist Miles Davis. Kat Von D did not dispute that she used Sedlik’s photo as a reference for a tattoo she performed on a friend.