Recording artists Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I. filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California against Defendants, Marvin Gaye’s family and Bridgeport Music, the owner of some of Funkadelic’s musical compositions. The lawsuit seeks a declaration from the court that their hit single “Blurred Lines” does not infringe Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” or Funkadelic’s “Sexy Ways” and that the Gayes do not have an interest in the copyright to the composition “Got To Give It Up” sufficient to confer standing on them to pursue claims of infringement of that composition. The lawsuit was filed because the trio received continued threats from the Defendants that they would commence their own lawsuit if the trio did not pay a monetary settlement of Defendants’ claims of copyright infringement and the Plaintiffs believe that the songs at issue are “starkly different.”

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