Infamous for their reluctance to engage in courtroom shenanigans, Epic Games has filed a lawsuit. The company is pursuing Sick Picnic Media and Matthew Geiler in a move that can only be described as “you’re not taking us to court, we’re taking you to court.”
The lawsuit is over something old, something new, something licensed, and something…orange. Matthew Geiler may be best known to the internet memesters union as the guy behind that dancing pumpkin video that went viral many many years ago. The lawsuit stems from the use of the pumpkin man dance in an emote available in Epic Games’ lesser known title; Fortnite.
“This case concerns one of those emotes: a Halloween-themed emote called “Pump It Up” that Epic Games made available for a single day shortly before Halloween in the fall of 2019 as part of its annual Fortnitemares event (the “Pump It Up Emote”). In the Pump It Up Emote, the avatar performs a brief dance to a Halloween-themed song developed by Epic Games while the head of whatever avatar the player has selected is transformed into a jack-o’-lantern face designed by Epic Games.”
This isn’t the first time Epic has been sued over the use of dances in Fortnite, although every single one of those suits were voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiffs. What makes this one different is that Epic is suing the dance creator for a preliminary declaration of non-infringement. Similar to their lawsuit against Acceleration Bay, Epic has taken the preventative step of asking the court to decide on a potential lawsuit before the would-be plaintiff ever files it.
Oh and unlike the previous lawsuits, Epic Games actually licensed the dance. The lawsuit goes on to state that Epic Games and Geiler actually licensed the use of the dance, which Geiler happily admits to on Facebook (making for great evidence that Epic handed to the court). Geiler actually says “Luckily they did a licensing deal with me
ahead of time!” Despite admitting to having a licensing deal in place, Geiler has apparently been submitting cease & desist notices to Epic demanding that they remove the emote. Epic now pleads the court for a ruling of non-infringement.
Source: Lawsuit
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