Mariah Carey’s legal team is pushing for the dismissal of a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against her, asserting that her iconic holiday hit, “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” is an original creation.
The lawsuit, initiated by songwriter Vince Vance, whose real name is Andy Stone, alleges that Carey’s 1994 Christmas classic infringes on his 1989 song of the same name. Vance claims that Carey’s track is more than 50% similar to his own, citing parallels in lyrical content and chord structure, as well as a “unique linguistic structure.”
However, in a response filed this week, Carey’s legal team argued that the similarities between the two songs are based on standard song structures and not on any protectable elements. “Plaintiffs’ claimed similarities between Vance and Carey are unprotectable… because they are, among other things, fragmentary and commonplace building blocks of expression that Vance and Carey use differently in their overall different lyrics and music,” the filing stated.
The defense also contends that the lawsuit lacks substantive evidence of any significant shared elements, describing the alleged similarities as an “unprotectable jumble of elements.” According to the filing, these elements include common Christmas-themed phrases and musical components that are widely used in the genre.
“The claimed similarities are an unprotectable jumble of elements: a title and hook phrase used by many earlier Christmas songs, other commonplace words, phrases, and Christmas tropes like ‘Santa Claus’ and ‘mistletoe,’ and a few unprotectable pitches and chords randomly scattered throughout these completely different songs,” the court documents assert.
Carey, a five-time Grammy winner, has not publicly commented on the lawsuit.
