A designer has filed a hefty lawsuit against Capcom for unauthorized use of its licensed work, particularly in Resident Evil 4, Devil May Cry and other games. According to the lawsuit filed last Friday, Capcom used unlicensed photos in many of his games for logos and artistic works.
Capcom sued for $12 million in royalties for Resident Evil and DMC
Judy A. Juracek, who has written as well as designs, filed a lawsuit friday in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, Polygon reported. In 1996, Juracek published a book of detailed photographs focusing on surface textures and how they changed over time. Surfaces: Visual Research For Artists, Architects, And Designers, this book includes interviews with some design experts as well as many design and design topics.
The book also includes many tips and methods for designers to use for royalties. But it was the main subject of the case, in which Capcom used these photos and methods but never received permission from its designer.
The author of the book presented to the court more than 100 pages of documents showing comparisons between screenshots of Capcom’s video games and designs from his own book. In fact, one of these examples says that the design of a door façade in the book matches the façade of a door in Resident Evil. In another example, it was stated that it took the broken glass designed to characterize the “4” in the Resident Evil 4 logo directly from the book.
The lawsuit alleged capcom had to pay the designer $2,500 to $25,000 for each design. The total number of designs used was more than 80 and the entire amount was up to $12 million. Among the reports that lawyers are requesting a jury trial. Capcom said they were aware of the case and did not provide further details.
