Carrie Underwood is being sued over her 2018 'Sunday Night Football' theme song.
Carrie Underwood
The 'Before He Cheats' hitmaker is being subjected to legal action by songwriter Heidi Merrill, who claims she wrote and recorded a song called 'Game On' in 2016 and pitched the track to the country superstar and her producer Mark Bright the following year with the idea the former 'American Idol' champion could use it as her next sports anthem but was told they would "have to pass".
Heidi argued Carrie's own 'Game On' is "substantially - even strikingly - similar, if not identical" to her song, not just in title but in tempo, hooks, chord progression, time signature and other aspects.
The complaint - which as well as Carrie and Mark also lists EMI Entertainment, Warner Chappell Music, the NFL and NBC as defendants - stated: "The Defendants knowingly, willfully, and intentionally copied original, copyrightable elements of the Plaintiffs' original Work, publicly performed or displayed the Infringing Song, and otherwise violated the Plaintiffs' exclusive copyrights in the Work for substantial personal and commercial gain."
Heidi and her co-writers are seeking an injunction and unspecified damages.
The writer's lawyer, Timothy Foster, has vowed to "aggressively seek" vindication of Heidi's copyright to her song.
He told Billboard: "Federal copyright laws are designed to protect the authors of original creative works, including our clients who wrote the original song 'Game On' in 2016 and submitted it for Carrie Underwood's consideration through her producer.
"As alleged in our complaint, after Ms. Underwood's representatives indicated that they were not interested in using 'Game On,' Ms. Underwood, with help from the other Defendants, released her new Sunday Night Football theme song with the same title, which is substantially similar to our clients' original 'Game On' in numerous respects.
"This type of exploitation is precisely what our copyright laws are designed to protect against, and we will aggressively seek to vindicate our clients' rights in the original song they created."
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