Invoice Withers‘ writer is suing UMG, Capitol Data, Sony‘s publishing arm, and Kobalt over an Olivia Dean monitor.
Mattie Music Group, which does enterprise as Bleunig Music, claims that Dean’s I’ve Seen It copies the melody of Simply the Two of Us, the 1981 hit co-written by Withers.
Beneath its Bleunig Music identify, the corporate is considered one of three publishers credited on Simply the Two of Us, alongside Antisia Music and BMG Ruby Songs. Neither of the opposite two has joined the case.
The grievance describes Mattie Music Group as “a copyright proprietor” of the composition, and says Withers was signed to it as a songwriter when he co-wrote the track.
The writer says its representatives reached what they thought-about the “apparent and inescapable conclusion” that I’ve Seen It copied the Withers monitor.
The seven-page grievance was filed on Thursday (October 1) in federal court docket in Los Angeles, underneath case quantity 2:26-cv-11383. The submitting, obtained by MBW, will be learn in full right here.
I’ve Seen It is the closing monitor on Dean’s second album, The Artwork of Loving, which Capitol launched on or about September 26, 2025, in keeping with the grievance.
The submitting credit the track to Dean, Bastian Langebaek, and Max Wolfgang.
Neither Dean nor her two co-writers on the monitor are named as defendants, although the grievance additionally sues 50 “Doe” defendants and says it’ll add their actual names as soon as identified.
As an alternative, the swimsuit targets the businesses behind the recording and the track: Capitol Data, LLC; Common Music Group, Inc., named within the grievance as a Delaware company with its principal administrative center in Los Angeles County; a Sony publishing firm named as Sony Publishing (US) LLC, doing enterprise as Sony/ATV Songs LLC; and Kobalt Music Publishing America, Inc., doing enterprise as Songs of Kobalt Music Publishing.
UMG‘s US recorded-music firm is ordinarily named in litigation as UMG Recordings, Inc., and Sony‘s US publishing firm as Sony Music Publishing (US) LLC.
MBW has contacted Capitol father or mother UMG, Sony, and Kobalt for remark. None had responded on the time of publication.
The grievance refers to Simply the Two of Us because the “Unique Work.” It calls Dean‘s track the “Infringing Work,” a time period it makes use of from the center of the submitting onward with out expressly defining it.
It states that “Defendants Capitol and UMG distributed and exploited sound recordings of the Infringing Work and Defendants Sony and Kobalt licensed and exploited publishing rights within the Infringing Work.”
“Defendants Capitol and UMG distributed and exploited sound recordings of the Infringing Work and Defendants Sony and Kobalt licensed and exploited publishing rights within the Infringing Work.”
Mattie Music Group‘s grievance
“In early August, 2026, upon listening a number of instances to I’ve Seen It, representatives of Plaintiff got here to what they thought-about to be the apparent and inescapable conclusion that I’ve Seen It copied in giant and vital half the Unique Work,” the grievance states, “together with with out limitation repeated copying of the distinctively protectable melody, and clearly infringed Plaintiff’s copyrights in and to the Unique Work.”
Mattie Music Group then employed musicologist Alexander Stewart to check the 2 songs.
“Dr. Stewart performed a preliminary musicological comparability and a seek for related prior artwork and concluded that the works comprise substantial similarities in protectable musical expression, together with repeated copying of the distinctively protectable melody,” the submitting reads.
The grievance argues that the success of Simply the Two of Us means Dean and her co-writers may have heard it.
“Due to the Unique Work’s extraordinary and sustained business dissemination, together with its Billboard success, Grammy recognition, many years of radio play, widespread streaming availability, and quite a few commercially launched cowl variations, Olivia Dean, Bastian Langebæk, and Max Wolfgang had an affordable alternative to come across the Unique Work earlier than creating I’ve Seen It,” it states.
The Withers writer goes additional, claiming the overlap between the songs would level to copying even with out that proof of publicity.
“Independently of the widespread-dissemination proof, the quantity, character, and association of the shared musical options are so placing that they assist an inference that the similarities didn’t end result from coincidence, unbiased creation, or reliance on widespread musical components,” the lawsuit reads.
The writer says it despatched written discover to every defendant on or about August 17, 2026, figuring out its copyright registration for Simply the Two of Us, the accused composition, and the fabric musical similarities. The 1981 registration certificates was filed with the grievance as a separate exhibit.
“Regardless of receiving discover, Defendants continued reproducing, distributing, licensing, publicly performing, and commercially exploiting the Infringing Work,” the grievance claims.
“Regardless of receiving discover, Defendants continued reproducing, distributing, licensing, publicly performing, and commercially exploiting the Infringing Work.”
Mattie Music Group‘s grievance
The writer alleges that the infringement by Capitol, UMG, Sony, and Kobalt was, and stays, “willful.”
Mattie Music Group seeks its losses plus the earnings the defendants produced from the alleged infringement, with “the precise sums to be confirmed on the time of trial.”
Alternatively, it will possibly go for statutory damages at any level earlier than remaining judgment – as much as USD $150,000 per work if the infringement is discovered to be willful.
The writer can be asking the court docket to completely bar the defendants from additional infringing its copyright within the Withers track, and to award curiosity, prices, and attorneys’ charges. It additional says it’s entitled to an order authorizing the seizure, impounding, or destruction of infringing copies.
Simply the Two of Us was co-written by Withers, who died in 2020, with Ralph MacDonald and William Salter. In accordance with the grievance, a recording that includes jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. and lead vocals by Withers was launched as a single in February 1981.
The submitting states that the track reached No. 2 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 and gained the Grammy for Greatest R&B Track.
Dean gained the Grammy for Greatest New Artist in February 2026, and she or he was amongst UMG’s prime sellers in This autumn 2025.
In April 2026, co-writer Langebaek signed a world deal masking his future works with Sony Music Publishing UK and three way partnership Second Songs, having beforehand been signed to Common Music Publishing Group. Wolfgang is signed to Kobalt worldwide.
The grievance doesn’t set out which writer administers every author’s share of I’ve Seen It. Langebaek‘s Sony deal was introduced greater than six months after the album’s launch and covers works written from that time on.
Copyright claims pitting one hit towards one other have been examined in US courts earlier than.
In June 2025, the US Supreme Court docket declined to listen to an enchantment from Structured Asset Gross sales, which claimed that Ed Sheeran‘s Pondering Out Loud copied Marvin Gaye‘s Let’s Get It On, leaving lower-court wins for Sheeran, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Publishing in place. A separate Structured Asset Gross sales declare, constructed on the sound recording quite than the sheet music, was left untouched by that ruling.Music Enterprise Worldwide
