A US federal appeals courtroom has revived the copyright infringement lawsuit in opposition to Ricky Martin over his 2014 music Vida.
The ruling sends a case that has run for almost 12 years again to a decrease courtroom for extra litigation.
In its choice on Friday (June 12), which you’ll learn right here, the US Court docket of Appeals for the First Circuit vacated a decrease courtroom order that had granted Martin abstract judgment in opposition to songwriter Luis Adrián Cortés-Ramos.
“As we speak, we take into account one other chapter within the perpetual quest of plaintiff/appellant Luis Adrián Cortés-Ramos … for good ol’ customary copyright justice,” wrote Circuit Choose O. Rogeriee Thompson.
“This isn’t the primary time Cortés has ended up earlier than us in his David-versus-Goliath copyright battle – in actual fact, it’s his fifth attraction in twelve years throughout three circumstances arising from the identical core info.”
“This isn’t the primary time Cortés has ended up earlier than us in his David-versus-Goliath copyright battle – in actual fact, it’s his fifth attraction in twelve years throughout three circumstances arising from the identical core info.”
O. Rogeriee Thompson, US Circuit Choose
Thompson‘s opinion makes use of music terminology all through: the standard-of-review part is headed “Our Beat,” the dialogue “Our Verse,” and the conclusion “Outro.”
Cortés-Ramos has maintained for greater than a decade that Martin copied a music and music video he had submitted to a 2014 contest and turned it into Vida.
The dispute stems from the SuperSong contest, co-sponsored by Sony, which invited entrants to submit an authentic composition and accompanying music video.
Below the competition, the successful monitor could be carried out by Martin and will characteristic on the 2014 FIFA World Cup official album.
Cortés-Ramos was chosen as one in every of 20 finalists however didn’t win.
Martin launched Vida in April 2014, a monitor from One Love, One Rhythm – The 2014 FIFA World Cup Official Album.
The music peaked at No. 5 on Billboard‘s Sizzling Latin Songs chart.
The query is whether or not, by getting into the competition, Cortés-Ramos assigned any copyright in his submission to Sony – which would depart him with out the possession wanted to sue for infringement.
A Justice of the Peace decide really useful granting Martin abstract judgment on that foundation, and the district courtroom adopted the advice and declared Cortés-Ramos‘s copyright registration invalid.
The district courtroom had moved straight to abstract judgment, denying Cortés-Ramos‘s requests to open discovery, together with a movement for an preliminary scheduling convention.
The First Circuit discovered that it had finished so with out giving Cortés-Ramos an opportunity to pursue discovery, the pretrial stage the place both sides obtains paperwork and testimony from the opposite.
“But it took these sweeping actions with out giving Cortés the good thing about an opportunity to pursue discovery, regardless of his repeated pleas for such a possibility,” Thompson wrote.
“Cortés appeals on that floor … and we agree with him on the invention subject, so we vacate and remand for extra litigation, but once more.”
The courtroom utilized Rule 56(d), which permits a decide to delay ruling on abstract judgment when a celebration can not but entry the proof it wants.
Cortés-Ramos first sued over Vida in July 2014.
That case was dismissed as a result of he was sure by an arbitration clause within the contest guidelines, a discovering the First Circuit upheld in 2016; however earlier than that ruling got here down, he had already filed a brand new go well with in opposition to Martin alone. In 2018, the appeals courtroom discovered that Martin was not coated by that clause.
After additional argument over whether or not he had registered his copyright in time to sue, Cortés-Ramos refiled, and in 2024 a district decide granted Martin abstract judgment.
The June 12 ruling was not unanimous: Chief Choose David Barron dissented partly.
“As a result of I don’t perceive Cortés to have made the Rule 56(d) arguments that almost all attributes to him, I respectfully dissent partly,” he wrote.
The First Circuit vacated each the abstract judgment and the order invalidating the registration, returning the case to the US District Court docket for the District of Puerto Rico.
There, Cortés-Ramos will get the possibility to conduct discovery earlier than the courtroom once more weighs whether or not to grant Martin a remaining judgment.
“Solely after Cortés has had a ‘full and truthful alternative’ to pursue some discovery … ought to the district courtroom proceed to abstract judgment,” the opinion acknowledged.
Related copyright claims have examined different artists within the US courts in recent times.
In March 2026, Cardi B gained the dismissal of a lawsuit alleging her monitor Sufficient (Miami) copied an earlier music.
That case, like Cortés-Ramos‘s, turned partly on copyright registration, with the decide discovering the plaintiffs had not registered their work after they filed.
Dua Lipa prevailed in a copyright go well with over her monitor Levitating in 2025, when a New York federal decide granted her abstract judgment.
Ed Sheeran, in the meantime, has fended off claims that his monitor Pondering Out Loud copied Marvin Gaye‘s Let’s Get It On.
That combat ran by a number of trials and appeals, with one strand taken to the US Supreme Court docket in 2025.Music Enterprise Worldwide
