A company that owns the right to tattoos on NBA players is suing Take-Two Interactive and Visual Concepts, makers of the popular video game franchise NBA2K, for graphically representing those tattoos on NBA players without his permission.
Solid Oak Sketches filed suit on Monday in New York federal court, saying that particular tattoos depicted on players in the recent game, NBA2K16, was their copyrighted work.
The eight infringed on designs include a child's portrait and script scrolls with clouds and doves on LeBron James' forearms and butterflies on Kobe Bryant's arm.
Solid Oak Sketches got the copyrights to most of the tattoos last year and, as evidence by exhibits submitted in the lawsuit, had written letters to the video game company to make an arrangement so that the tattoos could be used in the game.