Houstonian and wrestling pro Booker T. Huffman has sued Santa Monica video publisher Activision Publishing, its parent company and New York eSports giant Major League Gaming for allegedly infringing on a comic book character copyrighted by Huffman.
In an 11-page lawsuit filed Tuesday, Booker T., as he is professionally known, claims the “Prophet” character in the newest “Call of Duty” game is too similar to “G.I. Bro,” which Booker T. created based on one of the WWE Hall of Famer’s early pro wrestling personas.
Spokespeople for Activision and MLG did not immediately respond to requests for comment or confirm that they have been served with the lawsuit yet.
The latest “Call of Duty” game, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, went on sale in late 2018 and sold $500 million worth of copies and downloads within the first three days following its release, the lawsuit says.
“When seen side-by-side there can be no question that this character was copied from G.I. Bro,” said Dallas lawyer Micah Dortch of the Potts Law Firm, who represents Booker T. “From the hair, body type and clothing, right down to facial expressions, the similarities are too profound to be an accident.”
Houston attorney Patrick Zummo also represents Booker T. in the litigation.
In 2015, Booker T. teamed up with an independent contractor to create artwork and four cartoon versions of G.I. Bro, the lawsuit says. They then took Booker T.’s story and produced a preview comic book – and later, a longer version comic book titled G.I. Bro and the Dragon of Death. In it, the retired soldier is “Book,” a character based on Booker T. himself. His old enemy taunts him as “G.I. Bro” in the story.
Since launching the comic books, Booker T. has promoted them and his character by appearing at various comic book events dressed as G.I. Bro.
The lawsuit says Booker T. registered G.I. Bro and the Dragon of Death with the U.S. Copyright office and he received a certificate of registration on Jan. 8.