Backpack Kid is Also Suing Fortnite Over Floss Dance

On Dec 20, 2018

While Fortnite became one of the biggest movements in pop culture in 2018, Epic Games hasn’t been shy of finding influence from other source material when adding new content. While looking to the Web for the next viral Internet breakout dance has become common practice to how Fortnite incorporates emotes, a few celebrities from whom these moves originated are starting to take action from a legal standpoint. Now, the creator of the widely popular “Floss Dance” has added his name to the list of those suing Epic Games.

Russell “Backpack Kid” Horning, who’s best known for his signature “Floss Dance” is pursuing legal action against Epic Games and Fortnite. Horning is currently in the process of copyrighting his trademark move, and is pursuing unspecified damages against the developer. This marks the third person so far to go toe-to-toe with the company, as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Airs‘ Alfonso Ribeiro and rapper 2 Milly are suing Epic as well.

Since Horning is only 16 years old, his mother is suing Epic Games on his behalf, and apparently the litigation won’t stop with Fortnite. There are a number of other companies the family is taking action against, such as Take-Two Interactive and Visual Concepts Entertainment, who have also taken the liberty of using the Floss dance in different games. As it turns out, Alfonso Ribiero has taken similar action with games such as Destiny, and the previously mentioned publishers also found ways to insert the Fresh Prince actor’s dance into its games.

Ribeiro has taken things the farthest of the three aforementioned plaintiffs, as a restraining order against Epic Games has been filed by him to make sure the company is unable to sell or display the “Fresh” emote anywhere in the game. Ribeiro’s lawsuit claims one of the key reasons for taking action is due to the misrepresentation of the moves in emote form, and not giving credit to their respective creators.

Undoubtedly, the last thing Epic Games was hoping for to begin Fortnite’s seventh season was being involved in multiple legal battles. At any rate, it looks as if Epic will have to tread more carefully in the future so as to avoid having history repeat itself.

Fornite is available on Android, iOS, PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.

Source: TMZ