Sony Music Entertainment and Patrick Moxey’s Payday Music Publishing have ended their long-running legal dispute.
The companies filed a voluntary dismissal notice, which you can read here, on December 5, in the New York federal court. It formally closes out both the trademark case and a related copyright infringement complaint.
Sony Music confirmed that the parties have reached a” business resolution of all of their disputes”.
The development arrived nearly eight months after Ultra International Music Publishing rebranded itself as Payday Music Publishing.
The legal battle originally centered around Moxey’s continued use of the ‘Ultra’ name for his independent publishing company. SME already owned 50% of the Ultra Records label, which it acquired from Moxey in 2012. After that, he continued to run the label as its President and co-owner. Moxey left Ultra Records in January 2022 but continued to fully own Ultra International Music Publishing.
Moxey’s publishing company (UIMP) was sued by Sony-owned Ultra Records in December 2022 over Moxey’s continued use of the ‘Ultra’ name.
In December 2024, a jury found that Moxey’s music publishing company had breached the trademark. In February, a US federal court gave Moxey’s independent publishing company (UIMP) 180 days (approximately six months) to change its name to something other than “Ultra.”
Ultra International Music Publishing then rebranded as Payday Music Publishing following the trademark dispute with Sony Music Entertainment.
The most-recent agreement also closes a separate copyright infringement case that Moxey’s firm filed against Sony Music in 2024.
The original lawsuit, filed in New York in November on behalf of Ultra International Music Publishing LLC (UIMP) and Ultra Music Publishing Europe AG, centered on allegations of copyright infringement over Sony and its affiliates’ alleged use of Moxey’s company’s compositions without a license.
Most recently, a dismissal notice was filed on Monday (December 8), with both parties agreeing to drop all claims “with prejudice and without costs against the defendants.”
Neither Sony Music nor Payday disclosed financial terms of the settlement or other details about what both parties agreed to.
Payday, based in New York, represents over 70,000 copyrights including works by Post Malone, Ed Sheeran, and Drake. In May, the company signed a publishing deal with the estate of songwriter, musician, and producer Kenny Young.
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