WWE Hall of Famer Booker T has filed a lawsuit against Activision for their depiction of a character named Prophet in a series of Call of Duty comics. Booker T, real name Robert Booker Tio Huffman, claims that the character infringes on his copyright relating to one of his alter egos named G.I. Bro. Huffman. .
The news came in a release by the litigators representing Booker T, Potts Law Firm. Potts Law Firm states in the post on its website that the Prophet “bears striking similarities to G.I. Bro.” The lawsuit itself states Booker T created two comic books based on his G.I. Bro character. The suit alleges, in their use of David “Prophet” Wilkes, Activision “chose to steal Booker T.’s ‘G.I. Bro’” character.
In the post, Micah Dortch of the Potts Law Firm reiterated their belief an infringement of copyright has taken place, “When seen side-by-side there can be no question that this character was copied from G.I. Bro. From the hair, body type[,] and clothing, right down to facial expressions, the similarities are too profound to be an accident.”
In the lawsuit, the firm names Activision Publishing Inc., Activision Blizzard Inc., and Major League Gaming Corp. as defendants. Potts Law Firm states the defendants sold over $1 billion worth of copies of Call of Duty Black Ops 4.
The litigation comes as a wave of celebrities have sued Epic Games for Fortnite’s use of dance moves. Various stars have alleged that they created some of these dance moves and Fortnite has used them without permission. Epic Games is fighting these claims. We’ll soon see if Activision chooses to do the same.
Aside from this current lawsuit, the Prophet character attracted attention upon the comic’s release. The comic led to speculation that Prophet was the first gay character featured in the Call of Duty series.
