Legal updates and opinions
News / News
Fortnite, Wimbeldon And Tour De France
By Donvay Wegierski, Director
Fanatic or not we will all be familiar with the above, each comprising sport in its own shape and form. Interestingly though the prize money in Epic Game’s Fortnite World Cup 2018/2019 is said to be around US$3.000.000 and tops the major sporting events* prize money being higher than that of Wimbeldon (US$2.980.000), Tour De France (US$580.000), The Indy 500 (US$2530.000), and The Masters (US$1.980.000).
Although Fornite is available to anyone in free-to-play mode a player can either earn or simply buy V-Bucks which is the sale of virtual goodies in the game including costumes, stickers and dance moves. The exact value of these sales is unknown though estimated at US$two billion annually.
With this monetisation, it is no surprise that celebrities including Alfonso Ribeiro better known as Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Brooklyn Rapper 2 Milly and Instagram’s Backpack Kid have pursued copyright infringement proceedings in relation to some of the dance moves in Fornite. This has raised the question whether you can own the copyright in dance moves. For copyright to subsist in a work, the work should be original and in a material form which in this instance could include texted choreography and video recordings so as to show where the dance originates from.
Latest News
CANCELLED OR PARTIALLY CANCELLED TRADE MARKS – SOME TAKE AWAYS
By Donvay Wegierski, Director The European Union's Trade Mark office (EUIPO) has this year cancelled McDonald's European Union Trade Mark [...]
BANKSY AND GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT
By Janine Hollesen, Director We have written about the risks of not using a trade mark which could lead to [...]
CANNABIS REMAINS ABUZZ
By Donvay Wegierski, Director An adult may possess and use cannabis in private for personal consumption in South Africa. This [...]
Recognising subtle forms of sexual harassment in the workplace
The #METOO movement has correctly focused public attention on inappropriate workplace conduct. After all of the media attention, the obvious ways [...]
All beliefs are created equal – or are they?
Did you know that your beliefs may be protected by labour laws? But how far do these protections extend – [...]
Salary discrimination not automatically unfair
Unfair discrimination on the basis of an inequality in pay - between male and female staff, or staff of different [...]

