Photo Credit: Dua Lipa by Harald Krichel / CC by 4.0
A copyright infringement lawsuit over Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” that’s been raging on for years has suddenly been dismissed with prejudice.
A producer’s copyright infringement lawsuit over Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” has suddenly been dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled in the future. Los Angeles-based producer Bosko Kante claimed that the use of his “talk box” recording was unauthorized in three remixes of the track, despite being authorized for use in the original recording.
The lawsuit was filed against the singer and Warner Music Group in the District Court of the Central District of California in the summer of 2023.
But Dua Lipa is no stranger to litigation. She’s faced three other copyright infringement lawsuits over “Levitating” alone, including two by songwriters Sandy Linzer and L. Russell Brown, and another by Florida reggae group Artikal Sound System. Lipa won the former in a ruling last year, while the latter was dismissed back in 2023.
Meanwhile, she’s currently embroiled in a tense legal battle against Samsung over the use of her face on the packaging of TVs, allegedly without permission. Samsung’s attempt to have the $15 million lawsuit dismissed was unsuccessful, and Lipa’s legal team argued that the company’s use of her likeness falsely suggested her endorsement of its products.
Samsung has argued that consumers would not mistake the use of her likeness for a branding deal and would understand that it was meant to illustrate something that could be viewed on their televisions. The company also claimed that a third-party content provider explicitly informed Samsung that it had secured permission for the use of Dua Lipa’s image, including in the use of retail packaging.
However, Lipa has been very protective of her name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights, so it seems questionable for a third party to have granted the use of her image without her team knowing about it. The singer argues that because she is so protective of her image, fans would absolutely assume that the inclusion of her face on Samsung’s televisions meant that she endorsed the product.
The larger issue may be the question of jurisdiction. Both sides disagree over which country’s laws govern Dua Lipa’s publicity claims. Samsung argues that because the star is English, English law should apply, which does not recognize the standalone right of publicity that her lawsuit seeks to enforce under California’s statutory protections. Lipa’s attorneys argue that California’s law governs the commercial exploitation of a celebrity’s image on products marketed and sold in California, whether she is English or not.
