Bit Parts

The U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina refused to disqualify counsel for The Marshall Tucker Band from representing founding member Doug Gray and the band's corporate entity in a suit against the band's former manager. The Marshall Tucker Band Inc. v. M T Industries Inc. (MTI), 7:16-00420. Ron Rainey, who managed the band for more than 25 years, owns a majority share of the group's music publishing company MTI. (Gray has a 20% stake.) The current case against MTI and Rainey involves a trademark dispute over the band's name. Citing the South Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct, Rainey moved to disqualify from the litigation the plaintiffs' counsel, Michael Wilkes and Ellen Cheek, who previously performed legal work for MTI until 2010 but since then have served as counsel for the plaintiffs. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis noted in part: “To the extent their representation of Plaintiffs has included work related to MTI, Plaintiffs' counsel have defined their role as being counsel for Gray, not MTI.” District Judge Lewis later noted: “Put another way, Plaintiffs' counsel's verbal and written declarations to Rainey consistently and unequivocally demonstrated to him that they solely represented the interests of Plaintiffs, and not those of Defendants.”

Ninth Circuit Sees No Access to Plaintiff's Song by Writers of Jessie J's Hit “Domino.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a summary judgment dismissal of a copyright infringement lawsuit over Jessie J's hit “Domino.” Loomis v. Cornis, 13-57093. The ruling focused on the issue of whether the writers of “Domino” had access to plaintiff Will Loomis's song “Bright Red Chords.” Loomis sued Jessie J and Universal Music in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. “Bright Red Chords” had garnered a MTVU “Best Freshman” video award, and MTV chose Loomis and his group as one of the best new bands of 2010. But Loomis's recording sold only 46 copies. “Domino” was written in 2011 by a group of songwriters that included Jessie J, Dr. Luke and Max Martin. Loomis claimed the “Domino” songwriters must have had access to “Bright Red Chords” through Universal Music A&R executive Sunny Elle Lee, who contacted Loomis's mother to obtain a copy of his song. But the Ninth Circuit noted: “Loomis did not dispute Defendants' statement that '[t]he five Domino Writers do not know, have never met, and have never received anything from Sunny Elle Lee.' He also did not dispute that 'Lee was not part of the work unit that created Domino.'” Loomis further claimed there was a triable issue of access based on Dr. Luke and Max Martin having worked in a Santa Barbara studio in 2010 on Katy Perry's Teenage Dream album, when “Bright Red Chords” was getting extensive radio play in that market. Here, the Ninth Circuit observed: “Dr. Luke and Max Martin were not participating in the relevant market ' the Santa Barbara local music scene ' during their brief stay in Santa Barbara. Their production responsibilities had nothing to do with listening to local radio, reading local press, or scouting local bands, and there was no evidence that they undertook any other activity in that market that created a reasonable possibility of access to Bright Red Chords.”

Sony Songwriting Contest Dispute Sent to Arbitration