The Fortnite Dance Lawsuits Have Been Dismissed

In the most not so surprising news of the day, we’ve learned that a new ruling has dismissed all copyright infringement suits against Fortnite. Epic Games, the studio responsible for Fortnite is off the hook for now, as a new Supreme Court ruling renders them obsolete. According to the ruling, creators can no longer sue for infringement unless they already own the copyright to that which they are claiming has been infringed. Previously, one only need to have applied for a copyright to be eligible for compensation.

Actor Alfonso Ribeiro, viral sensation Russell Horning, and rappers 2Milly and Blocboy JB have all filed suits against Epic Games for copyright infringement. The property in question are dance moves, which are referred to as “emotes” in Fortnite, and each plaintiff claims to be the creator of the moves. The lawsuits started piling up after Fortnite had achieved massive success, and included the dance moves in their Estore, where gamers could buy them individually and use them in-game.

The law firm that is representing the plaintiffs have willingly dropped their case, pending an award of an actual copyright from the US Copyright Office. Should that happen, the lawsuits would be immediately refiled, and one has to imagine that Epic would be in a ton of hot water at that point. From here though, it looks like this is already a lost cause as dance moves are insanely difficult to trademark.