Pickett v. Migos Touring, Inc., et al.

Comment by Charles Cronin

One can easily anticipate the District Court’s disposition of this dispute by reading the Complaint (below), which comprises little more than boilerplate text and a hopelessly vague allegation that Defendants copied “a substantial portion of the Infringed Composition.” Judge Analisa Torres’s Order (below) discusses various procedural problems with the Complaint, including the fact that the Plaintiff filed suit before he had obtained a registration for his work. Presumably, in an attempt to discourage the Plaintiff from pursuing this matter further, Judge Torres did not simply dismiss the case on technical grounds. Even if these were not sufficient bases for dismissal, her analysis of the contested works indicated Plaintiff could not possibly demonstrate they shared any substantial protectable original expression.

This is an example of a case that should never have been filed. Had the Plaintiff consulted first with a law school IP clinic, or an organization like Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, he might have been dissuaded, by a sensible read on the merits of his claim, from wasting the time and resources of the Court and the Defendants.

Complaint: PDF

District Court Order by Judge Torres: PDF