Right to Publicity Litigation Further Defines What Is A Transformative Use for Video Game Companies

By Courtney Seams, GW Law 2L, (Contributing Research, Joseph La Vine) In a recent US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit decision, Hamilton v. Speight, 827 Fed. Appx. 238 (3rd Cir. 2020), Microsoft and Epic Games prevailed when the court found that their video game character in the popular Gears of War video game franchise did not misappropriate the character’s likeness from the Plaintiff, Lenwood ‘Skip’ Hamilton. Hamilton worked as a professional wrestler in the 1990s and was kno