- Songwriter is suing Mariah Carey for copyright infringement on “All I Want for Christmas is You.”
- Songwriter Andy Stone says he released a song of the same name five years earlier.
- Song titles are usually not protected by copyright laws.
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Mississippi songwriter is suing pop star Mariah Carey for her 1994 Christmas hit “All I Want for Christmas is You,” saying she released a song with the same title five years earlier, according to court records.
Songwriter Andy Stone of Vince Vance & the Valiants claims in a civil complaint that Kerry and Sony Music Entertainment “never sought or received permission” from Stone to use the title. He also accused Kerry and Sony Music Entertainment of “knowingly, intentionally and intentionally” disrupting his work.
Stone filed a lawsuit in federal court in Louisiana. The complaint did not specify when Stone learned about the version of Kerry’s song, which reappears every holiday season and has been No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for the past three years.
The lawsuit says Stone at some point “became aware” of Kerry’s “use of his job” and hired lawyers to contact the defendants in April 2021.
Sony Music Entertainment, which owns the record company that represented Kerry at the time of the song’s release, did not respond immediately to Insider’s request for comment.
It is unclear how successful Stone’s case will be. Song titles are usually not protected by copyright laws and it is very common for multiple songs from different artists to share a name.
For example, the title “All I Want for Christmas is You” is shared by dozens of other songs and musical compositions listed in the public catalog of the US Copyright Office.
Stone’s case does not claim any other similarities between his and Kerry’s songs outside the titles. The lyrics of the two songs, although thematically similar, share only the title refrain “all I want for Christmas is you.”
As Debanjali Rose of Insider reported last year, “All I Want for Christmas is You” is one of Kerry’s most celebrated, beloved and critically acclaimed hits, earning her more than $ 60 million in royalties since its release nearly three decades ago. .
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