Along with seven co-writers and a number of publishing companies, singer Ariana Grande is facing a lawsuit for copyright infringement. Producer and hip-hop artist Josh Stone, who uses DOT as a stage name, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Jan. 17. It alleges that Grande’s Grammy-nominated song “7 Rings” was plagiarized from a song he wrote called “You Need It, I Got It.”
According to the lawsuit, Stone met with Universal Music Group in 2017 and played his song for them. One of the defendants named in the suit was a producer who was at that meeting and who worked on Grande’s song. The suit claims that the producer said he was interested in working with Stone although he then apparently took it to Grande. The lawsuit also says that the hook, narrative context, lyrics and beat are all the same and that all 39 notes have the same metrical placement.
The melody of “My Favorite Things” by Rodgers and Hammerstein from the movie “The Sound of Music” is used in the song, which was released in 2019. The suit does not mention this but says that the defendants have earned significant revenue from Stone’s work.
Theft of intellectual property can take a number of different forms in addition to copyright infringement. Those forms include violation of a trademark or patent. Individuals who have created intellectual property may want to consult an attorney about the correct ways to register and protect it. They may also want to consult an attorney if they believe another person or entity has used that material without permission. In some cases, it may be sufficient to notify the person or entity. In other cases, it might be necessary to file a lawsuit.