A quick update on the litigation involving Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” one of last year’s biggest songs.
Thanks to an agreement between the parties, Bridgeport Music is no longer a defendant as of Wednesday. That means that the lawsuit won’t be considering whether the Thicke hit is a copyright infringement of Funkadelic’s “Sexy Ways.”
When Thicke and producers Pharrell Williams and Clifford Harris Jr. (rapper T.I.) filed a preemptive lawsuit seeking declaratory relief last August, they suggested that threats were being made by the rights-holder of Funkadelic’s songs. Soon thereafter, George Clinton, who once led Funkadelic and has feuded with Bridgeport over the years, quickly tweeted his belief there was no sample in Thicke’s song.
The removal of Bridgeport from the dispute means it’s now purely a fight between Thicke’s side (which now includes various record labels) and Marvin Gaye’s children over whether “Blurred Lines” is too similar to Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” as well as whether Thicke’s “Love After War” is too similar to Gaye’s “After the Dance.”
The plaintiffs say that “being reminiscent of a ‘sound’ is not copyright infringement” while the defendants and counter-claimants say that Thicke has gone too far with his “Marvin Gaye fixation.”
A mediation session is scheduled for next month. At present, a trial is set for November.
