Activision brought to court over Call of Duty infringement
05-02-2021
09-12-2016
Activision Blizzard and several of its contractors have been hit with a lawsuit concerning a character in its 2019 video game
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
The video game publisher has been accused of copyright infringement by freelance photographer and writer Clayton Haugen over a character featured in
Modern Warfare named ‘Mara’, which Haugen claims was based on the main character in his story
November Renaissance.
The complaint, filed at The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Tuesday 2, alleges that Activision and the games developer Infinity Ward’s copying of his character, named Cade Janus, was “deliberate, intentional and comprehensive.”
A film writer is suing Activision Blizzard over similarities between one of its Call of Duty characters, Mara, and his own copyrighted character and images.
Clayton Haugen alleges that a character he created in 2017 named Cade Janus and posted to his website and social media was used as the basis for Mara.
Actress and cosplayer Alex Zedra was hired by Haugen, whose Instagram posts show images of Zedra in military garb, prior to the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
The lawsuit alleges that Call of Duty developers saw the images and employed the same actress and makeup artist as the basis for Mara, a character in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
Activision Blizzard Sued Over Call of Duty Character Design
Photographer Claims Activision Blizzard Copied His Copyrighted Design
Activision Blizzard is reportedly getting sued over an operator they added to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in 2019. The plaintiff is a writer and photographer named Clayton Haugen, who claims the Call of Duty character, Mara, is based on “Cade Janus”, a character he created and uploaded to his website and social media channels prior to Mara’s release.
According to court documents originally published by Torrent Freak, Haugen filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in a Texas court on Tuesday, Feb. 2.
Haugen claims that Activision Blizzard, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare developer, Infinity Ward, intentionally modeled the character of Mara after his own original design –both of which even hired the same model, Alex Zedra for the basis of the character.
Lawyer Warfare.
Clayton Haugen is a writer who has sued Activision Publishing Inc., Activision Blizzard Inc., and Major League Gaming Corp. over the basis of them stealing his Cade Janus character in
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Haugen created the Cade Janus character as part of concept art and a story treatment that was created to draw interest from movie production companies. To do so, he posted his protected images on his website and social media in order to both demonstrate his talent and provoke engagement from film studios.
“There should be no question that this was a planned, deliberate effort to duplicate the striking images created by Mr. Haugen,” said Micah Dortch of the Dallas office of the Potts Law Firm. “The evidence included in our filing clearly shows the similarities between the original images and the digitized character, as well as the actual use of Mr. Haugen’s images.”
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