June 18, 2014 (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago) – Proskauer’s Entertainment Industry and Copyright partners Chuck Ortner and Sandra Crawshaw-Sparks secured a significant victory for iconic artist Lady Gaga in the dismissal of a copyright infringement case concerning her musical composition and sound recording “Judas,” which was a hit single on her very successful 2011 “Born This Way” album. Born This Way sold over 10 million albums, and “Judas” sold millions of downloads as a single.
A Chicago singer-songwriter named Rebecca Francescatti sued Lady Gaga in the U.S. District Court in Chicago alleging that “Judas” copied music and the title lyric from Francescatti’s song, “Juda.” This was an unusually complex case that included four musicologist expert witnesses battling over esoteric and technical issues involving, among other things, computer-generated music and the relatively new “electronic music” genre. In addition, Franscescatti attempted to raise disputes over more than 160 “facts” which she argued supported her claims.
At the conclusion of discovery, Proskauer moved for summary judgment, arguing that the two works were not substantially similar and any of the asserted similarities, including the title, were not original and therefore not protectable under the Copyright Act.
In a thorough 43-page opinion, Judge Marvin Aspen of the Northern District of Illinois agreed with our arguments and dismissed the plaintiff’s case against all defendants, including Lady Gaga, her record company and the record’s producer. The court concluded, “We agree with defendants that the songs do not have common lyrics, the themes are different, and they do not sound at all alike musically. We conclude as a matter of law that the two songs are not substantially similar. No reasonable trier of fact could find that defendants copied protected expression in Francescatti’s song.”
Despite noting that “summary judgment is not favored on the question of substantial similarity in copyright cases,” based upon the detailed analysis that we presented to the court regarding all of the relevant musical elements, instrumentation and lyrics, the court held that no reasonable fact finder could detect similarities between the protectable expression in plaintiff’s song and Lady Gaga’s Judas”.
Recently, Proskauer was ranked by Chambers USA 2014: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business as a leading firm in Media and Entertainment Litigation and Intellectual Property. Both Mr. Ortner and Ms. Crawshaw-Sparks were singled out by Chambers USA, which reported that Mr. Ortner is noted by clients as “one of the preeminent music lawyers in the whole world”. Proskauer was named to National Law Journal’s IP Hot List, and its Patent Law Group was also ranked as a leading firm in IAM Patent 1000.
In addition to Mr. Ortner and Ms. Crawshaw-Sparks, the Proskauer team included litigation associates Alex Kaplan, David Munkittrick, Adam Deitch and Proskauer alum Kevin Blum; with assistance from Proskauer’s Chicago office including Litigation Department partner Steve Gilford and associate Bradley Lorden and paralegal Jessica Marasa.