Dua Lipa wins dismissal of 'Levitating' copyright lawsuit

British pop star Dua Lipa and music label Warner Records convinced a Los Angeles federal court on Monday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a Florida reggae group that accused Lipa's hit Levitating of copying one of its songs.

U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes said Artikal Sound System failed to argue that the writers of Levitating ever had access to the group's 2017 song Live Your Life.

Sykes gave the group an opportunity to file a new complaint. She also rejected the band's request to move its case to New York to be heard with another infringement lawsuit by songwriters Sandy Linzer and L. Russell Brown over alleged similarities between Levitating and their disco songs Wiggle and Giggle All Night and Don Diablo.

Artikal Sound System attorney Stewart Levy said on Tuesday that the decision was disappointing and the band is considering its next steps. Representatives for Lipa did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Levitating spent 77 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100 U.S. singles chart, peaking at No. 2 in 2021.

The complaint, filed in 2022, said it was "highly unlikely" that Levitating was made independently "given the degree of similarity" between the two songs' melodies, harmonies and other elements. Sykes on Monday agreed with Lipa that Artikal Sound System's complaint failed to show that the defendants could have encountered its song before writing Levitating.

The group said it played Live Your Life at concerts, distributed it through streaming services and sold several hundred copies of a CD with the song on it. Sykes said this was not enough to demonstrate the song was widely disseminated enough that the Levitating songwriters could have heard and copied it.

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