Booker T has lost his fight against Activision.
In February 2019, Booker T Huffman filed a civil lawsuit against Activision Publishing, Inc., Activision Blizzard, Inc., and Major League Gaming Corp., for allegedly modelling the look of David “Prophet” Wilkes in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 after the comic book version of his former G.I. Bro character. The two-time WWE Hall of Famer debuted the persona while performing for the Western Wrestling Alliance, even reviving it briefly in 2000 for WCW when he helped lead the Misfits In Action stable.
G.I. Bro and the Dragon of Death was released in 2015, to which Huffman created and owns the copyrights. Booker T insists that permission was never sought nor given and that his copyrighted material continued to be infringed upon through the distribution of the game. The lawsuit also claimed that the first-person shooter made over $1 billion since its release in October 2018.
On June 25, the jury sided with and awarded the case to Activision.
“We are pleased with the outcome. Bottom line, to call this a frivolous case would be a massive understatement,” said E. Leon Carter of Carter Arnett, Trail Counsel for Activision Blizzard, in a statement. “Activision creates games with the utmost integrity and is extremely proud of everyone involved with the development and creative process for all of our games including Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, including the incredible talent like William Romeo who helped bring our vision to life. Today, the jury validated that process.”
Activision's case was built upon the argument that Booker T had contracted away to WWE all rights to the promotional material as well as rights to images and other depictions of G.I. Bro. Furthermore, they maintained that the similarities between G.I. Bro and Prophet were exaggerated, noting that both merely involved black military men with dreadlocks standing in a “generic military pose” while holding weapons.
Should any additional information become available, Fightful will keep you informed.
