It took a little over 3 hours for a Texas jury determined that Activision did not violate copyright laws as claimed by former WWE wrestler Booker Huffman (aka Booker T). The issue at hand was whether Booker’s “GI Bro” character was used in the Call of Duty video game.
The case went to trial this past week and was decided on Thursday by a jury. The fact that a jury would hear the case seemed to be a triumph for the WWE wrestler but that did not come to pass.
The lawsuit centered around a character that Booker T developed, GI Bro. He filed a copyright for the character and appeared as the character in his time wrestling as well as at comic book conventions. At issue was his use of the character at comic book conventions. Huffman signed “Nostalgia Agreements” with WWE which assigned the rights of characters to WWE.
A character in Activision’s ‘Call of Duty’ series had similar depictions to the “GI Bro” character. Activision claimed that it was a mere coincidence that the two images looked alike. However, Booker T argued that he dressed up as the GI Bro character at comic book conventions and a poster featuring the character at trade shows. Deposition testimony from an Activision executive stated that they attended ‘Comic Con’ events in the same time period as Huffman.
Yet, at trial, there appeared to be no evidence to support Booker T’s claim that Activision infringed on his copyrighted character. Activision filed a ‘Judgment as a Matter of Law’ which is similar to a summary judgment but at trial. It is used at trial when a party believes that the other has not met their burden of proof.
The motion claimed that Huffman’s ‘GI Bro’ character was a copy of the pro wrestler The Rock from the neck down. The facial expressions, according to Huffman, were copyrighted but Activision argued that this is not protected by copyright law.
Activision provided testimony from trial from Booker T where he admits tht non-original elements of the work were similar.
Huffman’s opposition to the brief cited evidence submitted in the record that would prove copyright infringement.
Yet, the decision on the motion did not matter as the jury decided in favor of Activision.
It didn't take long for a jury to decide that Booker T did not prove that Activision copied his GI Bro character for its Call of Duty video game. #WWE #sportslaw pic.twitter.com/u6bd8JNG7O
— Jason Cruz (@dilletaunt) June 25, 2021
Payout Perspective:
We might see an appeal to this case which may necessitate a settlement. However, this case shows that copyright infringement cases are hard to prove. At trial, Booker T and those testifying on his behalf admitted differences between the two depictions which may have been the downfall to the case. Also, the inability to prove damages as a result of the purported infringement made this case hard for Booker T. Simply put, Activision may have been inspired by Booker T’s character, but Booker T could not prove this under copyright law.
Leave a Reply