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By Blake Brittain
(Reuters) - Pop singer Mariah Carey defeated a lawsuit claiming she illegally copied elements of her holiday megahit "All I Want for Christmas Is You" from a country song of the same name.
U.S. District Judge Monica Almadani in Los Angeles in a ruling on Wednesday said the writers of Vince Vance and the Valiants' "All I Want for Christmas Is You" failed to show their song was objectively similar enough to Carey's to support their copyright infringement case.
Attorneys for the songwriters, lawyers for Carey and spokespeople for her label, Sony Music, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision on Thursday.
Vince Vance and the Valiants' "All I Want for Christmas Is You" was released in 1989 and reached the Billboard country charts during holiday seasons in the 1990s. Carey's song appeared on her 1994 album "Merry Christmas" and has since become a popular standard, topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart every holiday season since 2019.
Andy Stone, who performs as Vince Vance, and co-writer Troy Powers filed the lawsuit in 2023. They said Carey's song copied their song's "extended comparison between a loved one and trappings of seasonal luxury" and other lyrical and musical elements, requesting at least $20 million in damages.
Carey responded last year that the songs were "completely different" and argued that any similar elements were common to many Christmas songs, such as "snow, mistletoe, presents under Christmas trees, and wanting a loved one for Christmas."
Almadani determined on Wednesday that the songs were not similar enough for a jury to find that Carey had committed copyright infringement, citing differences in their melodies, lyrics and other musical elements.
Almadani also ordered the songwriters to pay part of Carey's attorneys' fees, finding some of their filings contained a "litany of irrelevant and unsupported factual assertions."
(Reporting by Blake Brittain; Editing by David Bario and Sandra Maler)
