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R&B Star Sues Preemptively to Protect Summer Hit
30 August 2013
R&B singer Robin Thicke is going to court to preemptively protect his hot summer hit from a potential copyright infringement suit. Singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams and Clifford Harris Jr – better known as rapper TI – joined Thicke in the suit.
The plaintiffs filed suit in California federal court against the estate of Marvin Gaye and Bridgeport Music, which owns rights to some of the band Funkadelic’s songs.
The suit was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
“Plaintiffs, who have the utmost respect for and admiration of Marvin Gaye, Funkadelic and their musical legacies, reluctantly file this action in the face of multiple adverse claims from alleged successors in interest to those artists,” the suit says. “Defendants continue to insist that plaintiffs’ massively successful composition, ‘Blurred Lines,’ copies ‘their’ compositions.”
The specific allegations by the Gaye family and Bridgeport have not been made public, but the suit alleges that the two have threatened a lawsuit should the trio not pay a monetary settlement.
“The basis of the Gaye defendants’ claims is that ‘Blurred Lines’ and ‘Got To Give It Up’ ‘feel’ or ‘sound’ the same,” the suit says. “But there are no similarities between plaintiffs’ composition and those the claimants allege they own, other than commonplace musical elements. Plaintiffs created a hit and did it without copying anyone else’s composition.”
Thicke and the co-plaintiffs are seeking a declaratory judgment declaring the parties’ respective rights with regard to “Blurred Lines,” including a declaration that “Blurred Lines” does not infringe “Sexy Ways” or otherwise violate Bridgeport’s rights, that the Gayes do not have an interest in the copyright to the composition “Got To Give It Up” sufficient to confer standing on them to pursue claims of infringement of that composition, or alternatively, (c) that “Blurred Lines” does not infringe “Got To Give It Up” or otherwise violate the Gayes’ rights.
New York Times music critic Jon Caramanica wrote that “Blurred Lines” is “influenced heavily” by Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.” Thicke’s lawsuit, however, says that “being reminiscent of a ‘sound’ is not copyright infringement. The intent in producing ‘Blurred Lines’ was to evoke an era. In reality, the Gaye defendants are claiming ownership of an entire genre, as opposed to a specific work, and Bridgeport is claiming the same work.”
While waiting for the court’s decision, Thicke can point to former Funkadelic bandleader George Clinton as a supporter. Shortly after the lawsuit was made public, Clinton tweeted “No sample of #Funkadelic’s ‘Sexy Ways’ in @robinthicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ - yet Armen Boladian thinks so? We support @robinthicke @Pharrell!”
The plaintiffs are represented by noted entertainment lawyers King, Holmes, Paterno & Berliner.
R&B singer Robin Thicke is going to court to preemptively protect his hot summer hit from a potential copyright infringement suit.
