Nwosuocha v. Glover II

Background

Emelike Nwosuocha sued Donald McKinley Glover, II, Jeffrey Lamar Williams, Ludwig Emil Tomas Göransson, and several music companies and publishers. He alleged that the defendants directly, indirectly, and through their relationships with one another infringed his copyright in “Made in America” through the song “This is America.”

Nwosuocha alleged that the songs shared a distinctive vocal flow and that their choruses had similar lyrical themes, content, and structure. He had uploaded “Made in America” to SoundCloud and YouTube in 2016 and later released it as a single. He obtained a copyright registration identified in the complaint as a registration for a sound recording.

Motion to Dismiss

The defendants filed a joint motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), which allows dismissal when a complaint does not state a legally sufficient claim. At this stage, the court generally accepts well-pleaded factual allegations as true and draws reasonable inferences for the plaintiff, but it does not accept legal conclusions as facts.

Copyright Registration

The court held that Nwosuocha’s copyright claim failed because his registration covered only the sound recording, not the musical composition. Copyright law treats a musical composition—including its music and lyrics—as distinct from the physical recording of a performance. The complaint alleged infringement of the composition, including its lyrical theme, content, and structure, rather than copying of Nwosuocha’s sound recording.

The court acknowledged that one submission to the Copyright Office can register both a sound recording and an underlying composition in certain circumstances. But the applicant must indicate that both types of copyright are being registered and provide the relevant authorship information. The court found that Nwosuocha’s certificate registered only the sound recording. It also rejected his reliance on Unicolors, Inc. v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz, L.P., explaining that that decision concerned inaccurate information in an otherwise valid registration and did not expand the scope of Nwosuocha’s registration.

The court further held that Nwosuocha could not fix this problem by obtaining a composition registration after filing the lawsuit and then amending the complaint. It explained that the Copyright Act requires the necessary registration before an infringement action is filed.

Copyright Protection and Similarity

The court also stated that dismissal would be proper even if Nwosuocha had registered the composition. It concluded that the claimed vocal cadence, delivery, rhythm, timing, phrasing, meter, pattern, or “flow,” along with the lyrical theme and structure, either lacked enough originality for copyright protection or were not protectable categories of expression. In particular, the court treated the lyrical theme as an unprotectable idea and found that the idea of a boastful rapper was not original to Nwosuocha.

The court found that the lyrics, which it considered sufficiently original to receive compositional protection, were not substantially similar to the lyrics in “This is America.” It explained that no reasonable jury could find the two choruses substantially similar. The court noted that the complaint did not allege infringement based on the songs’ overall structure, instrumentation, musical notes, or musical production.

Disposition

The court granted the defendants’ Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss the complaint with prejudice to leave to amend. The Clerk of Court was directed to terminate the motion, terminate any other pending motions, and close the case.