A writer from North Carolina is suing Activision Blizzard, Infinity Ward and Major League Gaming Corp. over claims that his character has been copied by them in 2019’s Call Of Duty Modern Warfare. The lawsuit was filed by Clayton Haugen, who claims that his character of “Cade Janus” was used to create Call Of Duty operator Mara.

According to the lawsuit, Haugen created Cade Janus as the central character for a short story called November Renaissance he hoped would be made into a film (thanks, TorrentFreak).

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In 2017, Haugen hired streamer Alex Zedra to portray the character in several photographs, which were shared on social media (see Instagram post above), but he claims that these photographs were allegedly used by Activision as a guide for the creation of Mara.

Haugen also claims that Activision hired Zedra to scan her likeness for Mara, and even the same makeup artist to reproduce the same look as Cade Janus.

Haugen registered the Cade Janus photographs back in December 2020, but Mara was added to Call Of Duty Modern Warfare in 2019 as part of the season one battle pass. With this lawsuit, Haugen is looking to “recover all monetary remedies from Defendants’ infringement, including all of their profits attributable to their infringements,” and “recover his costs, including attorney’s fees, incurred in this action to the full extent permitted by 17 U.S.C.”

Check out the full copy of the complaint here.