Fortnite: Lawsuit over 'Running Man' emote dismissed

Fortnite is one of those games that are always in the limelight. This time, a Fortnite case based around the 'Running Man' emote of the game has been recently dismissed by a judge after it was originally brought on behalf of Jared Nickens and Jaylen Brantley in 2019.

Nickens and Brantley are both former basketball students at the University of Maryland and are credited with popularizing the Running Man Challenge, years ago. Like others, who sought legal action against Fortnite and Epic Games for using their emotions, they both charged that their dance was misappropriated. They also said that their likeness was used for benefit in Fortnite. Numerous cases regarding the same have been dismissed in the past too.

Fortnite 'Running Man' emote case

The case alleging copyright infringement was filed in February 2019, after the dance became famous. Lawsuits like this one have tried to prove that Epic Games has been using the similarities of people as well as their unique dance movements as emotions for players to equip and use. Since these emotions are almost always sold, Epic Games has been alleged to profit from these dance movements and acts produced by others.

Source: Gamerant

Until it was dismissed, both Nickens and Brantley were seeking $5 million in damages from the copyright case. For the same reason, multiple lawsuits were filed against Epic Games. This case, that has just been dropped is one of the outliers in the sense that its resolution came much later than others' did.

A month after the Nickens and Brantley lawsuit was filed, it was reported that several similar lawsuits were dismissed. In each instance, the use of emotes, dances, or other actions in the game was found to be protected as the people who popularized the dances did not technically own the moves.