BENTON - U.S. District Judge Staci Yandle postponed a jury trial over ownership of tattoos on wrestler Randy Orton, due to the coronavirus.
She vacated a Sept. 20 trial setting in conference with 10 lawyers on Sept. 8, and ordered them to submit an agreed upon revised date.
Artist Catherine Alexander claims World Wrestling Entertainment and video game makers displayed Orton’s image without paying her for the tattoos.
She inked six tattoos on him and applied for copyrights.
The copyright office issued five and denied one for a Bible verse.
According to her counsel Anthony Simon of St. Louis, she contacted World Wrestling Entertainment and it offered $450.
He filed suit for her against World Wrestling Entertainment, 2K Games, 2K Sports,
Take Two Software, and Visual Concepts Entertainment in 2018.
Orton filed a declaration for defendants stating, “I felt that as the tattoos had become part of my body, I was free to go about my life without needing to ever go back to my tattooist for permission before I could be shown with my tattoos.”
In July 2020, Yandle set trial last October.
Last September, she set it this February.
In February, she set it Sept. 20, with final pretrial conference on Sept. 8.
On Sept. 3, she received trial briefs.
The final conference turned out not so final.
Simon appeared for Alexander, along with Anthony Friedman and Paul Tahan of his firm and Seth Crompton of the Holland firm in St. Louis.
Curtis Kraski of Pittsburgh appeared for World Wrestling Entertainment.
Dale Cendali, Christopher Ilardi, Joshua Simmons, and Amanda Means, all of Kirkland and Ellis in New York, appeared for the other defendants.
Michael Nester of Belleville appeared for all defendants.
On the same date that Yandle postponed the tattoo trial, District Judge Stephen McGlynn of East St. Louis postponed a Sept. 20 trial for the same reason.
In that case, former forklift operator Adelaida Anderson sued forklift maker Raymond Corporation over an accident that severed a leg.
The case involves nine lawyers, including former district judge Patrick Murphy of Marion as counsel for Raymond Corporation.