Photo Credit: Warner Music
Dua Lipa is currently facing two copyright infringement complaints over “Levitating.” Now, it appears that the 27-year-old singer’s legal team has taken steps to consolidate the actions.
This latest development in the litigation involving “Levitating,” which has racked up north of two billion total streams on Spotify, came to light in a new filing from the counsel of Dua Lipa, Sony Music Publishing, and several other defendants.
Regarding the substantially similar courtroom confrontations’ background details, March saw five members of a 12-year-old reggae band called Artikal Sound System sue Dua Lipa and her fellow “Levitating” songwriters in California. These defendants, Artikal Sound claimed, had lifted elements of 2017’s “Live Your Life” without permission to create “Levitating.”
“Given the degree of similarity,” the plaintiffs wrote, “it is highly unlikely that ‘Levitating’ was created independently from ‘Live Your Life.’”
Meanwhile, the other “Levitating” suit was submitted to a New York federal court later that same month.
In the newer of the cases – which Dua Lipa’s legal team pushed back against in late August – the plaintiffs alleged that “Levitating” is “substantially similar” to 1979’s “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” (which was recorded by Cory Daye) and 1980’s Spanish-language “Don Diablo” (which was recorded by Miguel Bosé).
“The ‘Levitating’ writers never heard the LS Compositions,” Dua Lipa’s attorneys wrote in support of their motion to dismiss the lawsuit. “The alleged similarities – a descending scale in which each pitch is repeated on evenly spaced notes, and a common clave rhythm – are unprotectible, and the result of the coincidental use of basic musical building blocks. But the Court need not reach these matters, because the Complaint fails to state a claim.”
As mentioned at the outset, new filings have revealed that Dua Lipa’s lawyers are moving to consolidate the actions in a single court.
Specifically, Dua Lipa’s counsel in the New York complaint relayed in a recent update to the presiding judge that the defendants had sought to transfer the other case from California.
“We write to provide a further update that the Cope Defendants filed a motion to transfer the Cope Action to the Southern District of New York on November 14, 2022, seeking for both actions to be maintained in a single forum,” the text reads. “We will continue to update the Court as to the status of that motion.”
Earlier this month, Disney was named in an infringement suit over a song featured in Frozen II, while Lawrence Muggerud (better known as DJ Muggs) closed out October by dropping his copyright complaint against Peloton.