Universal Music Group and Warner Chappell Music have agreed to settle a copyright lawsuit over Quavo‘s 2018 track Bubble Gum.
The lawsuit was brought by Lamount London, a Louisiana rapper who performs as L.Mont.
He alleged that Bubble Gum copied a track on a demo CD that he says he handed to Quavo after opening for Migos in 2016.
Lawyers for London and the companies told a federal court in Los Angeles on Wednesday (November 11) that they “have reached a settlement in principle in this matter.”
That means London and the companies have yet to finalize the deal.
The joint notice, filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, can be read in full here.
The three-page filing does not disclose the terms of the settlement, including whether London will receive any payment.
London and the companies asked the court to cancel all upcoming dates in the case, “with the expectation that the settlement will be consummated within forty (40) days.”
The companies covered by the notice are UMG Recordings, Universal Music-MGB NA, and Warner-Tamerlane Publishing.
The notice states that Warner-Tamerlane was wrongly named in London‘s complaint as W Chappell Music Corp. d/b/a WC Music Corp.
Quavo (real name Quavious Marshall) was also named as a defendant in the complaint, but he is not a party to the settlement notice.
The notice does not say whether the deal resolves the claims against Quavo personally.
London sued on September 20, 2024, as MBW reported at the time.
He claimed that he opened for 2 Chainz and Migos at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans on February 9, 2016, and then went to an after-party with the group.
“During the party, Plaintiff handed a demo CD, which contained the Plaintiff’s musical work, Bubblegum, to Defendant Marshall with the hope that the two would be able to work together on music in the future,” the complaint states. “Defendant Marshall accepted the CD from the plaintiff, and advised he would consider the plaintiff’s request.”
London said he wrote and recorded his own Bubblegum in or around 2015, and that it is registered with the US Copyright Office.
Quavo‘s Bubble Gum was first released on August 10, 2018, alongside Lamb Talk and Workin Me, and was later included on his debut solo album, Quavo Huncho, which came out on October 12, 2018.
The track and the album were both released via Quality Control Music, Motown, and Capitol Records.
The complaint refers to both London‘s track and Quavo‘s as Bubblegum.
“There are unmistakable similarities between the two works,” London‘s complaint claims. “Based upon a side-by-side comparison of the two songs, a layperson could hear similarities in the lyrics, arrangement, melody, core expression, content, and other compositional elements in both songs and conclude that songs are essentially identical, and the infringing Bubblegum clearly used the Plaintiff’s Bubblegum as a basis for the infringing Bubblegum.”
The complaint alleged that Quavo copied “the lyrics, content, melody and musical arrangement” of London‘s track.
It accused UMG Recordings of having “supervised the illegal reproduction of the Infringing Track … and authorized the illegal reproduction and distribution of the Plaintiff’s copyright protected work.”
It also said that Universal Music-MGB NA and the Warner Chappell company were responsible for collecting publishing royalties from the track.
The lawsuit argued that all four defendants were also liable for copying carried out by others, because they had the ability to control it and profited from it.
London also argued that the infringement was ongoing, because Quavo Huncho “continues to be sold and continues to be licensed for sale, downloads, streams, ringtones and/or mastertones, and other exploitations by Defendants or their agents.”
The complaint did not put a figure on the damages London was seeking.
It asked for his actual losses, plus the profits the four defendants made from the track, along with his legal fees.
As an alternative, it sought damages set by law, which are capped at USD $150,000 for each work infringed where the infringement is found to be willful.
With one registered work at issue, that would have been the most London could have been awarded that way, if such damages were available to him at all.
Under US copyright law, damages set by law and legal fees are generally unavailable where infringement began before the work was registered. For a published work, there is an exception if it was registered within three months of its first publication.
London‘s complaint says his Bubblegum has been released on streaming services, but does not say when it was first released or when his registration took effect. Quavo‘s Bubble Gum first came out in August 2018.
London also sought a permanent order barring the reproduction, distribution, sale, and public performance of Quavo‘s track.
If granted, an order of that kind could have required UMG and Warner Chappell to stop selling, distributing, and licensing Bubble Gum.
Separately, the complaint asked for an order requiring the defendants to credit London on any awards or other public recognition connected to the song.
The settlement comes as two other US lawsuits over tracks allegedly copied from songwriters’ demos have been withdrawn in the past three weeks.
On November 4, three songwriters who claimed that BTS‘s SWIM copied their demo dropped their lawsuit against HYBE in the same federal court.
On October 27, songwriter Aviel Calev Hirschfield withdrew his lawsuit claiming that the chorus of Drake‘s Janice STFU was copied from his demo.
That suit had also named UMG Recordings and Universal Music Publishing as defendants.
In both the BTS and Drake cases, the plaintiffs gave no reason for withdrawing and remain free to bring the same claims again.
London‘s case had been running for more than two years before Wednesday’s settlement notice.Music Business Worldwide
