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Nickens and Brantley appeared on DeGeneres’

talk show alongside two New Jersey high

school students who were posting videos

of the dance online before the two University

of Maryland basketball players filmed their

own version. Brantley told DeGeneres that

Nickens first showed him the dance in a video

on Instagram.

“We dance every day for our teammates in

the locker room,” Brantley said. “We were

like, ‘Hey, let’s make a video and make

everybody laugh.’”

One of their dance videos has millions of

views on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook,

their lawsuit said.

The judge dismissed their lawsuit’s claims

for invasion of privacy, unfair competition

and unjust enrichment based on preemption

under the Copyright Act. He also threw out

their trademark claims and claims accusing

the company of unfair competition and “false

designation of origin” under the Lanham Act.

“Plaintiffs seek to place the same square peg

into eight round holes in search of a cause of

action against Epic Games for its use of the

Running Man dance in its game Fortnite. But

Plaintiffs’ claims that Epic Games copied the

dance do not support any of their theories,”

the judge wrote.

Nickens was playing professional basketball in

Canada and Brantley was working as a sports

agent when they sued last year, according

to Richard Jaklitsch, one of their attorneys.

Jaklitsch didn’t immediately respond Monday

to an email seeking comment.

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