Capcom has resolved a $12 million lawsuit that was filed last year. The lawsuit alleged that the company had stolen images from a design book called Surfaces. The book, authored by designer Judy A. Juracek, predictably, contains images of various types of surfaces. The book, which was published in 1996, comes with a CD-ROM containing the images and can be used commercially, so long as they are properly licensed. However, Juracek claimed that Capcom had used the images without seeking the proper permissions.
As such, Juracek took Capcom to court and was asking for damages in the region of $12 million. The lawsuit contained evidence of Juracek’s images allegedly being used in games like Resident Evil. Even the Resident Evil 4 logo was used as an example of stolen textures, specifically the smashed effect on the number 4 in the logo. Check out the logo evidence provided below.
On the left is the original image from the Surfaces book and on the right is the logo for Resident Evil 4. The lawsuit contained over 200 similar images that showed pictures from Juracek’s book next to examples from Capcom games.
The case has now been resolved and a statement was released. “Capcom and Judy Juracek have amicably resolved their dispute concerning the alleged use of Ms. Juracek’s photos in Capcom’s games,” the statement read. “A dismissal was filed on February 7, 2022 with the District of Connecticut to end the lawsuit.” Although details on how the issue was resolved were not divulged, presumably there has been some sort of settlement paid by Capcom to Juracek.
Juracek discovered the similarities between Capcom games and her work when Capcom was the victim of a data breach in 2020. One of the files leaked in the data breach contained an image supposedly from Juracek’s Surfaces CD-ROM. While that may not be conclusive on its own, the image even had the exact same file name as the one on the CD-ROM.
