A judge has dismissed the copyright infringement lawsuit against pop sensation Dua Lipa regarding her hit single “Levitating” from 2020.
Last year, reggae band Artikal Sound System sued the “New Rules” singer, claiming that “Levitating” bore similarities to their own 2017 track “Live Your Life.”
U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes ruled that there was no evidence suggesting that the team behind “Levitating” had access to Artikal Sound System’s relatively unknown reggae song.
Artikal Sound System argued that their song was widely available and frequently performed, implying that the writers of “Levitating” must have heard it. However, Judge Sykes deemed this argument “too generic or insubstantial” to support their claim.
The judge wrote, “Plaintiffs’ failure to specify how frequently they performed ‘Live Your Life’ publicly during the specified period, where these performances took place, and the size of the venues and/or audiences precludes the Court from finding that Plaintiffs’ live performances of the song plausibly contributed to its saturation of markets in which Defendants would have encountered it.”
The band also presented a complex theory suggesting that one of Lipa’s co-writers could have heard their track. Judge Sykes addressed this theory, stating that the connections proposed were weak and irrelevant to the two musical compositions. She concluded there was no reasonable likelihood that the defendants encountered Artikal Sound System’s song.
Although the case has been dismissed, Judge Sykes has granted Artikal Sound System until June 16th to address the identified errors and re-file the complaint if they choose to do so.
Temporary victory for Dua Lipa?
The dismissal of this lawsuit brings a temporary win for the singer and the other defendants involved.
Despite this development, the pop sensation still faces another copyright infringement lawsuit tied to her song “Levitating.” L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, songwriters, alleged last year that Lipa had copied their songs “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” from 1979 and “Don Diablo” from 1980. Brown and Linzer obtained the copyrights for these songs after filing a similar claim.
The ongoing lawsuit also involves rapper DaBaby, who was featured on the remix of “Levitating.”
Despite the legal challenges, “Levitating” has been an immense success for Dua Lipa. The track reached the number one position on Billboard’s 2021 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart and spent an impressive 68 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Dua Lipa remains focused on her music career throughout the legal dispute, captivating audiences with her distinctive sound and catchy hits.
While the dismissal of this specific lawsuit provides some relief for Dua Lipa and her collaborators, they still await the outcome of the ongoing copyright infringement case involving the other songwriters.
