The lawyers representing the 'Firework' hitmaker have filed a motion in the U.S. District Court in California, requesting a trial in copyright infringement case.
- January 7, 2020
AceShowbiz - Attorneys for Katy Perry and her "Dark Horse" collaborators are demanding a retrial in the star's copyright infringement case.
The pop star and her collaborators, including songwriters Dr. Luke and Max Martin, were found guilty of swiping segments from Marcus Gray's Christian rap song "Joyful Noise" back in July 2019, and ordered to pay $2.78 million to the rapper.
However, defence attorneys have labelled the decision "a travesty of justice," and claim the plaintiffs failed to satisfy both extrinsic and intrinsic tests of "substantial similarity" between the two tracks.
"No amount of rhetoric can alter the evidentiary trial record, or how that record should have been measured under the proper burdens of proof and legal standards for access and substantial similarity consistent with the instructions given," the motion, filed on December 27 in the U.S. District Court in California, reads.
"There is only one outcome that comports with the legal standards applied to this trial record: no copyright infringement was proved by Plaintiffs as a matter of law."
Though a retrial is mentioned as an option, the defence is asking Judge Christina A. Snyder to throw out the jury's decision altogether, insisting "no reasonable jury following those instructions" could have decided in the plaintiffs' favour.
The filing comes in direct response to the plaintiff's November opposition filing, which countered the defence's earlier motion for an appeal. The defence previously claimed one of the plaintiffs' trial witnesses, musicologist Dr. Todd Tecker, "gave improper and highly prejudicial testimony."
