Last year, Alfonso Ribeiro filed a lawsuit against Fortnite creators Epic Games and 2K Sports for using his signature Fresh Prince of Bel-Air dance without his permission. The actor behind Carlton Banks claimed both companies stole the "Carlton Dance" for their respective games, although he was denied a copyright claim on the dance last month. Now he's reportedly dropping a lawsuit altogether.
As The Blast reports, Ribeiro filed documents on Thursday in federal court stating that he's dismissing the suit against Epic Games. His lawsuit against 2K Sports for using the dance in NBA 2K hasn't been dropped. The copyright claim denial Ribeiro received in February definitely didn't help his case. "The combination of these three dance steps is a simple routine that is not registrable as a choreographic work," the Copyright Office explained in a document detailing their decision.
Ribeiro isn't the only celebrity to file a lawsuit against Epic Games, with rapper 2 Milly, Backpack Kid, Orange Shirt Kid, and BlocBoy JB having all filed lawsuits against the video game giant. At the end of February, the developer and publisher was hit with another lawsuit after two former players from the University of Maryland men's basketball alleged they stole their "Running Man" dance.
Epic Games pushed to get 2 Milly's lawsuit against them dismissed, with their attorney Dale Cendali arguing that "No one can own a dance step."
