The 'No Air' crooner and the 'Certified Lover Boy' artist previously asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit filed by KBrandon Cooper because it is 'baseless.'
- Mar 17, 2022
AceShowbiz - Chris Brown and Drake continued to fire back at a copyright infringement lawsuit over "No Guidance". Having been accused of being "egotistical" in the suit, the pair submitted a new filing.
KBrandon Cooper first filed the lawsuit back in October 2021. Later in February, he claimed that the two A-listers were "both egotistical and without any legal basis whatsoever" to assert that they had never heard his 2016 song, "I Love Your Dress", which he believed to have been ripped off.
Now in new court papers, Brown' lawyer James G. Sammataro argued, "This is not a close call." The attorney added, "Posting a song on the Internet - such that the song is 1 out of 82 million songs on Spotify or posted by one of Instagram's 1 billion users - and a one-time public performance do not constitute widespread dissemination as a matter of law."
Sammataro also shut down Cooper's claim that he had previously shared "I Love Your Dress" with a Canadian A&R named Mic Tee in March 2019. He also claimed the A&R then "suggested" that they meet "in Toronto."
"Here, plaintiffs do not even allege that defendants know Mic Tee," so read the docs. "Nor do plaintiffs allege that Mic Tee gave defendants a copy of plaintiffs' song or that Mic Tee had any involvement in the creation of 'No Guidance'. Plaintiff's theory of access through Mic Tee is purely conjectural and speculative."
"Plaintiffs' allegation that Mic Tee suggested that Cooper travel to Toronto, Drake's 'original hometown,' is insufficient to permit an inference of access," it added. "By plaintiffs' own account, Drake has resided in California since 2014. In any event, there is no allegation that Cooper went to Toronto, and it is implausible to assume that every musician in Toronto collaborates and shares music with Drake."
Cooper, who filed the lawsuit along with Timothy Valentine, claimed that their song arrived three years before the 2019 hit. They alleged that "an analysis of the beat, lyrics, hook and rhythmic structure demonstrates that 'No Guidance' was copied or, at the very least, principally derived from 'I Love Your Dress'."
Cooper and Valentine pointed out that their track has the lyrics "She got it; she got it" repeated 16 times. As for "No Guidance", it has "You got it, girl; you got it" repeated at least 11 times. Cooper additionally accused Brown and Drake of making fun of his nickname with the phrase, "flew the coop."
