Deal sheet
- Status
- DISMISSED ON PROCEDURE WITH NO MERITS RULING, AND NO CONSIDERATION CHANGED HANDS. Empawa Africa Music Services Limited and Ezeani Chidera Godfrey (Dera) filed four counts of copyright infringement on 2 May 2025 in the US District Court for the Central District of California, case 2:25-cv-03944-ODW (BFMx), over the use of "Empty My Pocket" in "Ensename a Bailar" on Bad Bunny's Un Verano Sin Ti. The amended complaint sought more than 100 million US dollars. The court dismissed the action WITH PREJUDICE on 9 March 2026 for lack of prosecution (Dkt. 112) and entered judgment for the defendants the same day (Dkt. 113). That dismissal decided nothing about ownership, authorship, clearance or infringement. Two findings were made on 20 August 2026, in the order denying the defendants' fee motion (Dkt. 127), and they are the only adjudicated findings in the case: that Empawa's copyright certificates for the works are "prima facie evidence of its ownership" under 17 U.S.C. 410(c), and that the defendants, having admitted using the sample, "never presented Lakizo's alleged authorization for Empawa to examine" and did "not produce a scintilla of evidence demonstrating Lakizo's authority and exercise of said authority". On that basis the court held Empawa's claims "objectively reasonable and not frivolous". Whether Adesina Lekan, trading as Lakizo Entertainment, was a co-owner of the works and so entitled to license the sample unilaterally under Oddo v. Ries, 743 F.2d 630 (9th Cir. 1984) was the central defence and REMAINS UNDECIDED. No master, no publishing share, no catalogue and no cash moved in either direction. The 465,612 US dollars in the record is a fee application that was refused, not a payment.
- Type
- Licensing, Settlement
- Parties
- emPawa Africa Music Services Limited
- Rights covered
- Sample and interpolation clearance in a master recording and in the underlying composition; songwriting and production credit; and the disputed question of whether a distributor was a co-owner able to license or sublicense the works. No rights were transferred, assigned or licensed by this proceeding.
- Territory
- United States (litigation venue: Central District of California). Works created and credited across Nigeria (Ezeani Chidera Godfrey, Joeboy), the United Kingdom (Empawa Africa Music Services Limited, Companies House 12412587) and Puerto Rico and the United States (Rimas Entertainment LLC, Bad Bunny). Rights asserted worldwide.
- Announced
- 2026-08-20
- Primary document
- Regulatory filing
- Sources
- US District Court, Central District of California: Order Denying Motion for Attorneys' Fees, 2:25-cv-03944-ODW (BFMx), Dkt. No. 127, filed 20 August 2026, signed Otis D. Wright II · Civil minutes dismissing the action WITH PREJUDICE for lack of prosecution, Dkt. 112, 9 March 2026 · Judgment for defendants, "Plaintiffs shall receive nothing", Dkt. 113, 9 March 2026 · Moving defendants' motion for attorneys' fees and full costs of $465,612.00, Dkt. 115, 23 March 2026, signed Karen L. Stetson · Joinder in the fee motion by RSM Publishing, Universal Music Corp. and Songs of Universal, Dkt. 116, 23 March 2026 · Original complaint for copyright infringement, Dkt. 1, 2 May 2025, filed by Manatt, Phelps & Phillips · Full docket, Empawa Africa Music Services Limited v. Benito Martinez Ocasio, 2:25-cv-03944 (C.D. Cal.) · Companies House: EMPAWA AFRICA MUSIC SERVICES LIMITED, company 12412587, incorporated 20 January 2020, active · Companies House PSC register: Oluwatosin Oluwole Ajibade (Mr Eazi), 75 per cent or more of shares and votes · Companies House officers: Ajibade and Baba serving, Otedola resigned 20 March 2020
Read this before citing: This record documents a dispute that resolved nothing about ownership. Four points before citing it. (1) PROCEDURAL, NOT MERITS. The dismissal of 9 March 2026 was for failure to prosecute after the remaining plaintiff stopped participating. There is no judgment on whether "Ensename a Bailar" infringed, and no judgment on whether the sample was validly licensed. Do not report this as Bad Bunny winning on the sample, and do not report it as emPawa establishing infringement. (2) THE 465,612 DOLLAR FIGURE IS A REFUSED REQUEST, NOT A DEAL VALUE. The motion of 23 March 2026 sought 465,612.00 US dollars, comprising 462,894.00 in fees and 2,718.00 in costs, from Empawa alone. It was denied in full. Some secondary accounts give 456,312 dollars; the figure in the signed motion at Dkt. 115, stated three times, is 465,612.00, and 456,312 appears to be a digit transposition. This record follows the filed document. (3) THE FEE RULING IS DATED 20 AUGUST 2026. The signed order at Dkt. 127 is dated and stamped filed 08/20/26. At least one secondary account placed it on Thursday 24 August 2026. That is wrong, and the document resolves it. (4) THE PARTIES' FILINGS CONTRADICT EACH OTHER ON THE KEY DOCUMENT. The court found the defendants never presented Lakizo's authorisation for Empawa to examine. The defendants' own motion (Dkt. 115) asserts the written authorisation "was provided to it informally before it filed suit as well as in discovery". Both statements are on the docket. Neither was tested, and the contradiction is unresolved. Two further cautions. Lakizo Entertainment is identified in the court's own findings as a trading name of an individual, Adesina Lekan, not as a company; no corporate registration for it was found on the Companies House register, and Nigeria's Corporate Affairs Commission publishes no public API, so no further registration check was possible. And the rights-holder credits for "Empty My Pocket" still conflict across storefronts: the phonogram line reads 2021 emPawa Africa Limited on one service while another presents the same single as a Lakizo Entertainment release. Those storefront credits were not re-verified for this record and are not relied on for any ownership claim here; the ownership statement above rests on the copyright registrations as described in the court order.
No rights moved. No money moved. A copyright claim over one of the most widely heard Nigerian samples of the decade ran for sixteen months in a United States federal court and ended without a single ruling on whether the sample was ever licensed.
Empawa Africa Music Services Limited, the UK company in Mr Eazi’s emPawa group, and Ezeani Chidera Godfrey, the producer known as Dera, filed suit on 2 May 2025 in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. The case number is 2:25-cv-03944-ODW (BFMx). The four counts of copyright infringement concerned the use of “Empty My Pocket”, Godfrey’s 2019 instrumental and the later version carrying Joeboy’s vocals, in “Ensename a Bailar” on Bad Bunny’s album Un Verano Sin Ti. The amended complaint sought more than 100 million US dollars.
The rights chain each side asserted
The court’s order of 20 August 2026 sets out both positions from the evidence filed with it.
On the plaintiffs’ side: Godfrey composed and recorded the instrumental in 2019. Between 2019 and 2021 Godfrey and Joeboy added lyrics, producing a second composition and recording. Empawa holds the exclusive rights and the United States copyright registrations for all four works. Godfrey and Joeboy then entered what the court called “an informal arrangement” with Adesina Lekan, trading as Lakizo Entertainment, under which Lakizo paid them directly in connection with the release of the vocal version. Empawa had not authorised that release. After the relationship between Lakizo, Godfrey and Joeboy broke down, Lakizo approached Empawa, and on or about 21 June 2021 a written agreement was signed between Lakizo and Empawa 360 FZ LLC, described by the court as “an Empawa entity”. That agreement, the court found, “reiterated that Empawa is the copyright owner” and “did not grant Lakizo any right to license or sublicense Empty My Pocket”.
On the defendants’ side: Rimas Entertainment LLC obtained “written and oral permission” from Lakizo, whom the defendants describe as “a co-author and co-owner” of the works, and sublicensed that permission onward to every other defendant. The legal engine of that defence is the copyright co-ownership rule in Oddo v. Ries, 743 F.2d 630 (9th Cir. 1984): each co-owner of a copyright has an independent right to license its use. If Lakizo was a co-owner, Lakizo alone could clear the sample, and emPawa’s consent was irrelevant.
The court never decided which account was correct.
How it ended
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips applied to withdraw as counsel for both plaintiffs on 31 December 2025, citing an irreconcilable conflict: Empawa had decided to resolve the case informally, while Godfrey would not waive his right to sue. Empawa failed to retain replacement counsel in time and was struck from the amended complaint and dismissed from the action by minute order entered 4 February 2026. Godfrey continued without a lawyer, did not appear at a 5 February 2026 discovery hearing, and did not answer the order to show cause. On 9 March 2026 the court dismissed the action with prejudice for lack of prosecution, finding “that Godfrey has abandoned this case, and that letting this action drag out any longer would prejudice defendants and would be against the public interest”. Judgment was entered the same day: “Plaintiffs shall receive nothing.”
The fee claim, and why it failed
On 23 March 2026 five defendants, Bad Bunny, Orchard Enterprises LLC, Rimas Entertainment LLC, Spotify USA Inc. and Apple Inc., moved for 465,612 US dollars against Empawa alone, being 462,894 dollars in fees and 2,718 dollars in costs. RSM Publishing LLC, Universal Music Corp. and Songs of Universal, Inc. joined. The motion argued the case “was meritless from the beginning”, brought in the hope of extracting “an undeserved, multi-million-dollar settlement”.
The court denied it on 20 August 2026. It found Empawa’s claims “objectively reasonable and not frivolous”, relying on two things: the registrations were prima facie evidence of ownership, and “Bad Bunny admits that he used the Sample”. On the clearance defence the court was blunt: the defendants “never presented Lakizo’s alleged authorization for Empawa to examine”, so “the Court cannot fault Empawa for declining to trust Defendants counsels’ word”, and it “certainly cannot find Empawa’s position objectively unreasonable when Defendants do not produce a scintilla of evidence demonstrating Lakizo’s authority and exercise of said authority”.
The court also rejected an argument that Godfrey’s and Joeboy’s Nigerian citizenship barred them from registering US copyright: “This argument is meritless. No citizenship requirement exists in the Copyright Act.” It called the defendants’ description of the registrations as “fraud” “not well taken”.
