The son of Marvin Gaye is reportedly suing the manufacturers of Fox TV show Empire, claiming that they had a thought for a similar show first.
Empireis a US drama that centres round the hip-hop industry and particularly follows children running a entertainment company. It premiered in January.
Now, as TMZ reports, Gaye’s son Marvin Gaye III states to have registered a treatment for similar show the Writers Guild of America last year. Gaye’s show was titled Diamonds & Ballads.
Gaye’s lawyer recently told TMZ that they plans to file a case against creator Lee Daniels, Fox, plus others. He alleges that associates of Daniels was pitched the concept of Diamonds & Ballads during the past.
Earlier in 2010, a court found out that Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ has copied Marvin Gaye’s 1977 single ‘Got To Give It Up’.
It was ruled that Thicke and Pharrell Williams – who helped write the track – be forced to pay $7.3m (£4.8m) to Gaye’s family as compensation.
The lawsuit was due to Gaye’s children Nona, Frankie and Marvin Gaye III, who inherited the copyright on the soul legend’s music following his death back in 1984. The trial came because of a pre-emptive August 2013 lawsuit filed by Thicke and Williams who, fearing the Gayes could be litigious, sought to affirm that ‘Blurred Lines’ is “strikingly different” to ‘Got to Give It Up’.
During the trial, which began on February 25, Williams spent a lot more than an hour describing his musical process and that he how he stumbled on write ‘Blurred Lines’, which took him about an hour in 2012. Though he admitted a similarity between your track and ‘Got To Give It Up’, he was quoted saying the Gaye song never entered his head through the writing process, merely that they was “channelling… that late-’70s feeling”.
Singer Thicke performed a medley of songs in the court as evidence that lots of tracks share similar chords and melodies without necessarily copying one other. His performance included tracks by artists including U2, Bob Marley and The Beatles.
It is believed that Pharrell and Thicke have earned over $5m (£3m) each in the profits in the Grammy-winning single. Total profits in the single are estimated to exceed $16m (£10.8), and contains sold more than one million copies in the UK, using title of 2013’s biggest selling single.