A court in South Dakota, United States, has dismissed with prejudice a copyright case involving Dr. Luke over Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold” after the parties entered settlement proceedings. A separate ruling in the same decision denied a motion by songwriter Jonna Johnson, whose claim to authorship of the song is not resolved by the dismissal.
Case dismissed with prejudice#
Judge Roberto A. Lange wrote that the parties filed a Stipulation for Dismissal with Prejudice on November 9. Court documents from October had indicated that the parties had entered settlement proceedings and expected to reach a resolution within 30 days.
With that period elapsed, the judge dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. The dismissal resolves the matter involving a South Dakota broadcaster and allegations of unauthorized public performance.
Motion to intervene denied#
In the same ruling, Lange denied a Motion for Limited Intervention filed by Johnson. She claims that Dr. Luke stole “Hot N Cold” and other songs she alleges she wrote that appeared on Katy Perry’s album One of the Boys.
Johnson has previously said she is not suggesting that the settlement itself establishes wrongdoing, invalid ownership or infringement by any particular publisher. Instead, she sought to separately assert her interest in one of the compositions. She also said the situation raises the question of what should happen when a copyright enforcement action approaches settlement while a third party has separately asserted an authorship interest.
Authorship claim could proceed separately#
Because the case was dismissed with prejudice, it cannot be refiled, but Johnson’s alleged authorship stake could still be pursued in its own separate case. That issue was not dependent on the decision to dismiss.
Some of the questions Johnson raised appear to have been answered: no other significant developments occurred, and the case proceeded to dismissal.
