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12 ¦ SEPTEMBER 7, 2020 NEWS

¦ From MUSICIAN on PAGE 11
fendants have continued to willfully
and wrongfully infringe plaintiffs’
copyrights,” Grant’s Reitler Kailas &
Rosenblatt attorneys wrote in the 11-
page complaint.
The Trump campaign did not im-
mediately respond Tuesday to an
email seeking comment on the filing.
Grant, a Guyanese-British singer-
songwriter and founding member
of the pop group The Equals, origi-
nally assigned the song’s copyrights
to his company Greenheart Antigua
in 1983, the same year “Electric Av-
enue” spent five weeks at No. 2 on
Billboard Magazine’s Top 100 Chart.
The recording was later certified
platinum by the Recording Industry
Association of America.
According to the complaint,
Greenheart Antigua’s licensing arm,
Greenheart UK, briefly licensed the British pop and reggae artist Eddy Grant performs at the
copyrights to Warner Music in 2001 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland in 2008.
upon the release of Grant’s greatest
Photo: Jean-Christophe Bott/AP

hits album. Greenheart UK became the beneficial 13, 2020 letter, have continued to infringe Plaintiffs’
owner of the copyrights in 2006, when the five-year copyrights in the composition and the recording,
agreement with Warner Music and, upon information and belief,
expired. will continue to infringe plaintiffs’
Grant’s attorneys said in the copyrights in the composition
lawsuit that it appeared as though “Electric Avenue” spent five and the recording unless enjoined
Trump and Donald J. Trump for weeks at No. 2 on Billboard by this court,” the two-count law-

President Inc. had “financially Magazine’s Top 100 Chart suit said.
and politically benefited” from in 1983. The recording was Grant is represented in the suit
the allegedly infringing video, by Brian Caplan, Robert Clarida
which had been viewed more later certified platinum and Julie B. Wlodinguer of Reitler
than 13 million times. Kailas in Manhattan.
by the Recording Industry
According to the filing, Grant’s Association of America. The case, captioned Grant v.

lawyers sent a letter to Trump and Trump in the U.S. District Court
his campaign Aug. 13 demanding for the Southern District of New
that they “cease and desist from York, had not yet been assigned to
any further infringing conduct,” and Grant has pub- a judge, as of Tuesday afternoon.
licly stated his “dismay” that ‘Electric Avenue’ was ¦

used without his permission.” Tom McParland of New York Law Journal can be
“Defendants have failed and/or refused to com- contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on
ply with Plaintiffs’ demands set forth in the August Twitter @TMcParlandALM.

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