Pharrell Williams Has Been Cleared From His Marvin Gaye ‘Blurred Lines’ Lawsuit
Pharrell William’s “Blurred Lines” legal battle is behind him. Yahoo states that the original lawsuit against Robin Thicke and Pharrell concluded in 2018, but in 2019 Marvin Gaye’s family filed a motion accusing Williams of committing perjury during the case.
The lawsuit states, “The plaintiffs cited a GQ interview from November of that year in which Williams said he ‘reverse engineered’ Gaye’s song, arguing that this contradicted his statement during a deposition that he ‘did not go in the studio with the intention of making anything feel like, or to sound like, Marvin Gaye.'”
In that GQ interview, Pharrell said, “We try to figure out if we can build a building that doesn’t look the same, but makes you feel the same way. I did that in ‘Blurred Lines,’ and got myself in trouble.”
But the judge has decided that even with Williams’ statement, he did not commit perjury.
U.S. District Court Judge John Kronstadt said, “The statements by Williams during the November 2019 interview were cryptic and amenable to multiple interpretations. For example, it is unclear what Williams meant by ‘reverse-engineer.’ Read in context, Williams statement about ‘reverse-engineering’ could be interpreted as a process in which he remembers his feelings when listening to particular music, and then attempts to recreate those feelings in his own works.”
“This is not inconsistent with his deposition testimony, in which he claimed that he realized after creating ‘Blurred Lines’ that the feeling he tried to capture in the song, was one that he associated with Marvin Gaye.”
He then added, “For these reasons, the Gaye Parties have not shown by clear and compelling evidence that there are sufficiently material inconsistencies between Williams’ statements in the November 2019 Interview and his sworn testimony, to support a finding of perjury.”
Although Marvin Gaye’s family did not get the $3.5 million in attorney fees and costs they hoped for, they will still get half of all future royalties for the song from here on out.
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