Pop-punk band Yellowcard have dropped a $15m copyright lawsuit against Juice Wrld (aka Jarad Higgins) over the late artist’s hit single, Lucid Dreams.
Filed in October 2019, the lawsuit, which you can read in full here claimed that Lucid Dream’s authors, including Higgins, in addition to Taz Taylor and Nick Mira, ripped off Yellowcard’s track Holly Wood Died.
But on Friday (July 24), Yellowcard’s Nashville-based attorney Richard S. Busch, a partner at King & Ballow Entertainment Law – who has worked on a number of high profile copyright infringement cases in recent years – withdrew the complaint.
In the days following Juice WRLD’s death, aged 21, on December 8 after reportedly suffering a seizure in Chicago’s Midway airport, Yellowcard expressed their intention to proceed with the legal action.
Speaking to Billboard at the time, Busch’s law firm said: “My clients are certainly torn about proceeding, and understand the optics involved”.
He added: “But it is important to remember that this lawsuit was filed before this tragic event, and was filed because all of the defendants (and there are two other writers and several music publishers and record labels), profited off of what we believe was clear copying and infringement of Yellowcard’s work.”
In the months since, Higgins mother Carmela Wallace was appointed as the representative of his estate, with this development reportedly being behind the band’s decision to withdraw the legal action.
“My clients are very sympathetic not only of Juice WRLD’s death, but also needed time to decide whether they really wanted to pursue the case against his grieving mother as the personal representative of his estate,” said Busch, speaking to the New York Times, adding that the case’s dismissal was filed ‘without prejudice,’ which means that “it can be refiled”.Music Business Worldwide
