Mariah Carey Seeks Dismissal of Copyright Lawsuit Over “All I Want for Christmas Is You”
Mariah Carey and her legal team are seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit accusing her of copyright infringement over her iconic holiday hit, "All I Want for Christmas Is You." The motion, filed in Los Angeles federal court, comes more than nine months after songwriter Vince Vance, whose real name is Andy Stone, refiled the lawsuit, claiming that Carey’s 1994 song bears significant similarities to a 1989 song of the same title performed by his group, Vince Vance and the Valiants.
The lawsuit, initially brought by Vance in 2022 and later dropped before being refiled in November, argues that Carey's song is a "greater than 50% clone" of his earlier work, citing similarities in "lyric choice and chord expressions." Joining Vance in the November action is Troy Powers, who claims to have co-written the 1989 song with Vance.
A central issue of this case is the distinction between "protectable expression" and "commonplace elements" in copyright law. Copyright protection extends only to the original expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves. This means that while a specific melody, arrangement, or set of lyrics can be protected, general concepts like chord progressions, themes, or common phrases cannot be copyrighted.
The lawsuit also touches on the concept of prior use and the protectability of common phrases. Vance and Powers argue that their use of the words "all I want for Christmas is you" was distinctive when their song was released in 1989. However, Carey's team counters that this phrase and other elements like Santa Claus and mistletoe are widely used in Christmas music and cannot be claimed as original, protectable content.
Carey’s attorneys argue that the lawsuit lacks merit, asserting that the alleged similarities are merely "commonplace musical building blocks" that are not protected under copyright law. They contend that the plaintiffs’ claims fail the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s “extrinsic test for substantial similarity in protectable expression,” which assesses whether the similarities in question are legally protectable.
The "extrinsic test" is used in copyright infringement cases to determine whether two works share substantial similarities in their protectable elements. This test examines whether there are objective, concrete similarities between the works' specific, protectable aspects, such as the melody, harmony, rhythm, or lyrics. Carey's attorneys contend that under this test, the two songs do not share substantial similarities in their protectable expression, arguing that any resemblances are coincidental and involve unprotectable building blocks of music rather than unique, original elements.
"Plaintiffs’ claimed similarities between Vance and Carey are unprotectable…because they are, among other things, fragmentary and commonplace building blocks of expression that Vance and Carey use differently in their overall different lyrics and music," Carey’s legal team stated in the filing.
Vance and Powers had argued that the two songs share a "unique linguistic structure" and musical elements, including the phrase "all I want for Christmas is you," which they claim was distinctive when their song was released in 1989. However, Carey’s lawyers counter that the plaintiffs lack "competent evidence" to prove any substantial similarity in protectable expression between the two songs. The defense dismissed reports by musicologists retained by Vance and Powers, stating that the similarities identified are "isolated, fragmentary" and do not account for the broader differences between the songs. Carey’s attorneys argue that the reports are "inherently subjective" and do not meet the objective criteria required by law.
It will be up to the court to determine whether the expert analysis and evidence presented genuinely reflect protectable similarities or if it merely highlights coincidental, unprotectable elements common in many songs.
