October 31, 2014

Judge May Tell Robin Thicke and Pharrell They’ve ‘Got to Give it Up’

According to The Guardian, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams have lost their first battle versus The Gaye family in the copyright infringement lawsuit over Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ song. The Gaye family has stated that the song infringes on Marvin Gaye’s 1977 song, ‘Got to Give it Up.’

Before the Gaye family officially filed suit, Thicke and Williams filed a preemptive lawsuit in August 2013, following legal contact from the Gaye family alleging infringement of Got to Give It Up. Judge John Kronstadt denied the musicians’ motion for summary judgment, as he stated that the lawyers for the Gaye family “have made a sufficient showing that elements of Blurred Lines may be substantially similar to protected, original elements of Got to Give It Up.â€

Thicke basically gave the Gaye family an easy in when he gave this statement in a GQ interview pertaining to Blurred Lines. “Pharrell and I were in the studio and I told him that one of my favorite songs of all time was Marvin Gaye’s Got to Give It Up. I was like, ‘Damn, we should make something like that, something with that groove.’