Mariah Carey was hit with a copyright lawsuit Friday over her hit song ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’, which allegedly infringed the rights to a song with the same name written by Andy Stone of the country pop group Vince Vance & the Valiants.
Stone is demanding no less than $60 million (Dh220.4 million) in damages for alleged copyright infringement, unjust enrichment, and violations of the Lanham Act.
The complaint said Stone co-wrote and recorded the song ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ in 1989, five years before Carey’s song was released on her ‘Merry Christmas’ album. Stone’s song received “extensive airplay” during the 1993 Christmas season and began making appearances on the Billboard Music Charts, according to the complaint.
Copyright violations have a three-year statute of limitations under the Copyright Act.
Carey’s enormously popular song has become synonymous with the Christmas holiday and continues to dominate that music category. Her song makes up one of every 50 Christmas song streams on Spotify.
The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, alleged Carey and her co-writer Walter Afanasieff exploited “the popularity and unique style” of Stone’s song, “causing confusion as to the association” between the two songs in violation of the Lanham Act.
The complaint said the parties were unable to “come to any agreement over usage” of ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’. The defendants didn’t comply with cease-and-desist requests from Stone, the complaint said.
