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UMG/Jonathan MannionLast year, Rick Ross filed a lawsuit against LMFAO for copyright infringement over a line in the duo’s 2010 smash “Party Rock Anthem,” and its use on a T-shirt. Now, the rapper has lost at least part of the suit, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In January 2014, Ross filed the suit seeking an injunction and damages, alleging that LMFAO’s use of the phrase “every day I’m shufflin'” in the chorus of “Party Rock Anthem,” is an appropriation of the phrase “every day I’m hustlin'” from his 2006 hit “Hustlin’.” He also objected to LMFAO’s use of “every day I’m shufflin'” on T-shirts
But on Tuesday federal judge in Florida threw out the T-shirt portion of the suit.
“The question is whether the use of a three word phrase appearing in the musical composition, divorced from the accompanying music, modified, and subsequently printed on merchandise, constitutes an infringement of the musical composition ‘Hustlin’.’ The answer, quite simply, is that it does not,” ruled U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams.
“The average lay observer would not confuse t-shirts bearing the phrase ‘everyday I’m shufflin” with the musical composition ‘Hustlin’,’ nor without reference to ‘Party Rock Anthem’ and ‘Hustlin’,’ would an average lay observer recognize the merchandise as having been appropriated from ‘Hustlin,”” Williams wrote.
The broader infringement suit over the two songs as a whole will go forward.
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