Copyright Developments

On March 10, 2022 the Ninth Circuit affirmed a District Court’s vacatur of a jury verdict in Gray v. Hudson, 28 F.4^th 87 (9^th Cir. 2022)(“Gray”), to rule that a repeating eight-note instrumental pattern in Katy Perry’s 2013 hit “Dark Horse” did not infringe two similar patterns in Plaintiff’s 2008 composition entitled “Joyful Noise.”  The decision articulates the current state of Ninth Circuit law regarding the threshold of protectable originality in music infringement cases, and because so many music cases are brought in the Ninth Circuit the ruling will likely be significant to music litigators nationwide.