Activision Blizzard Sued Over Bogus Character Copyright In Call Of Duty, Judge Dismisses Case

Activision Blizzard was sued by Brooks Entertainment, a company alleging that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare ripped off elements of games it produced. The lawsuit was thrown out by the judge in July due to the claimant apparently not understanding the basics of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, such as, for instance, who the game's main character even is--something even a cursory Google search could reveal.

First spotted by Kotaku, Brooks Entertainment's lawsuit claimed it showed pitches of two games, Save One Bank and Stock Picker, to Activision Blizzard between 2010 to 2015.

Brooks then alleged Infinite Warfare copied what they showed to Activision Blizzard and cited the following evidence: Sean Brooks is the main character of Infinite Warfare, and apparently infringes on its Brooks' entertainment character Shon Brooks' likeness and persona. Brooks also claimed that Infinite Warfare and Save One Bank both share first-person shooter and third-person shooter mechanics, both have a "scripted battle scene in a high fashion couture shopping mall," and both main characters go to Mars.

In response, Activision Blizzard's counsel called Brooks' claims "delusional." The company also denied that talks between Brooks and Activision Blizzard ever took place. Also, Activision Blizzard added, Sean Brooks is not the main character of Infinite Warfare: Nick Reyes is.

Activision Blizzard also pointed out that Sean Brooks is an Irish space marine, and Shon Brooks, on the other hand, is “an African American San Diego-based financial consultant and cigar salesman."

The judge dismissed Brooks' lawsuit based on two reasons. The first is that Brooks obviously did not do enough research on Infinite Warfare, and the second is that there are "legally and factually baseless" claims in the lawsuit.

The judge also ordered the company to reimburse Activision Blizzard and Rockstar for attorney fees and litigation costs. As for why Rockstar was named in the complaint too, Brooks claimed that there were email exchanges between Rockstar and Activision Blizzard, and Rockstar was the one who apparently shared Brooks' pitch with Activision Blizzard.

Rockstar denied those allegations and specifically stated that it has no corporate relationship with Activision Blizzard. Rockstar said there is "no credible evidence that Rockstar created, released, published, or had any involvement in Call of Duty in any way," and that the company is, in fact, actually a competitor of Activision--so there's no way the two studios would work together on a CoD title.

In an interesting tidbit, prior to launching the lawsuit, Brooks contacted Activision Blizzard and Rockstar with the IP infringement allegations. Brooks requested 10% of all gross sales earned to date on Call of Duty sales, among other remuneration requests, and for the character Sean Brooks to be "morphed" into Shon Brooks. Bold requests, indeed.