Pryor Cashman Secures Repeat Win for Ricky Martin in Infringement Suit
In a significant win for Grammy Award-winning recording artist Ricky Martin, District Judge Silvia Carreño-Coll of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico granted Martin summary judgment, dismissed with prejudice a claim of copyright infringement asserted against Martin by plaintiff Luis Adrián Cortés-Ramos, and invalidated a copyright registration improperly obtained by Cortés-Ramos for the music video at issue in the case. Pryor Cashman partners David Rose, Benjamin Akley, and Andrew Goldsmith, and associate Jessica Rosen, represented Martin in the win.
The case involved claims (including various state law claims, which were previously dismissed) brought by Cortés-Ramos concerning a “SuperSong Contest” co-sponsored by Sony Music Entertainment in connection with the 2014 FIFA World Cup and featuring Martin. Cortés-Ramos entered the contest but did not win, and months later filed an action for, among other things, copyright infringement against Sony and Martin, claiming that the music video for Martin’s 2014 hit song, “Vida” was nearly identical to the music video Cortés-Ramos submitted to the contest.
This decision is the latest in a string of wins that Pryor Cashman has secured for Martin and Sony in this dispute, which has spanned three separate actions over a decade. In 2020, the team secured from Puerto Rico U.S. District Judge Daniel R. Domínguez a dismissal of a prior action against Martin, and in 2015 Pryor Cashman secured from Puerto Rico U.S. District Judge Gustavo A. Gelpí a dismissal of Cortés-Ramos’s first action against Sony and its affiliates, which was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
