A judge has said she is inclined to dismiss a copyright lawsuit brought against Mariah Carey over her festive hit "All I Want For Christmas Is You". Country singer Andy Stone - who performs under the stage name Vince Vance - filed a complaint last November in a Los Angeles federal court, alleging that Carey's Christmas hit infringed the copyright of his 1989 song under the same name. He made the same claims in a lawsuit that was dropped in 2022.
"If you look at both songs, you can see that about 50 per cent of the words are the same, in almost the same order. I think it's a pretty strong claim," the plaintiff's lawyer, Douglas M. Schmidt, previously said. He added that attempts to settle the case with Carey, her co-songwriter Walter Afanasieff and Sony ended without a resolution.
But in August this year, Carey's legal team requested the lawsuit be dropped, noting that Vance's claims fail the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal's "extrinsic test for substantial similarity in protectable expression" - essentially arguing that any similarities between the two songs are coincidental.
Now, US District Court Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani has said she is "inclined" to throw the case out and stated she is "seriously considering" granting a related motion filed by Carey's team requesting sanctions against the plaintiffs for what is alleged to be a "frivolous" filing, reports Rolling Stone.
(NME)
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