Ultra International Music Publishing, Patrick Moxey’s independent publisher, is suing Sony Music Entertainment and its various subsidiaries, including Ultra Records and AWAL.
The lawsuit, filed in New York on Friday (November 29) on behalf of Ultra International Music Publishing LLC (UIMP) and Ultra Music Publishing Europe AG, focuses on Sony and its affiliates for allegedly using Ultra’s works without permission. Allegations of Copyright Infringement.
As noted in the lawsuit, independent Ultra Publishing owns and utilizes more than 50,000 Recordings by Superstar Artists From Ed Sheeran and Madonna to Rihanna, Katy Perry, Migos and more. Ultra songwriters have been nominated for over 100 Grammy Awards and won multiple Grammy Awards.
Moxey is the former owner of Ultra Records, which was fully acquired by SME in 2021. The owners run the record label.
Moxey left Ultra Records in January 2022, but continues to wholly own Ultra International Music Publishing.
This is not the first time Moxey’s independent publishing company has been embroiled in legal disputes with Sony Music and SME subsidiary Ultra Records.
MBW broke the news in December 2022 that Moxey’s publishing company was being sued by Sony’s Ultra Records.
After selling Ultra Records in late 2021, Moxey continued to use the “Ultra” name for his publishing company.
In January 2023, Moxey/UIMP filed a counterclaim against Sony Music’s lawsuit in the Southern District Court of New York.
Most recently, in a lawsuit filed on Friday, Moxey’s Ultra International Music Publishing accused Sony Music of “underpaying or failing to pay royalties” to Ultra Music Publishing and its songwriters. The publishing company said it “has been conducting audits of Sony Music Entertainment and its affiliates” for several years.
Ultra Music Publishing’s complaint also alleges that Sony “acknowledged that the audit uncovered credit errors and payment calculation errors on the part of Ultra and its songwriters,” but that Sony “wrongly refused to pay Ultra Plaintiffs and their songwriters the amounts that the audit revealed were owed to them.” .
Because Sony allegedly “refused” to pay Ultra Publishing and its songwriters “the amounts they are owed,” UIMP said in the complaint that it “no longer grants[s] Licenses its works to Sony Music and its subsidiaries to “protect [UIMP] Songwriter”.
“The Sony Defendants knew, and have known for years, that the Ultra Plaintiffs would not grant them a license,” the lawsuit states.
“Despite the Sony Defendants’ lack of license, they knowingly, willfully, and completely inexcusably infringed Ultra Compositions’ copyright.”
According to the lawsuit, which you can read in full here, Sony Music and its subsidiaries allegedly[ing] transmitting “unlicensed recordings” of these works to streaming services and selling “infringing Sony recordings” in the form of digital downloads and physical configurations (such as vinyl records), as well as “erroneously” syncing them to music in videos and “lyric videos.”
“The Sony Defendants themselves have knowingly, blatantly, continuously and massively pirated the Ultra Plaintiffs’ intellectual property around the world without any reason or remorse.”
Ultra International Music Publishing files lawsuit against Sony Music
“Despite Ultra Plaintiffs’ repeated written requests to Sony Defendants to cease their infringing activities, Sony Defendants have flatly and unequivocally refused to do so,” the lawsuit adds.
UIMP claims that it sent SME a letter in January 2023, part of which you can see below, which “reaffirmed to SME: (a) that the defendants lacked a license to exploit Ultra Compositions’ recordings, and ( b) The Sony defendant “used Ultra Compositions to constitute copyright infringement.” UIMP claimed that SMEs “rejected” its requests.
Attached to the lawsuit is a purported “non-exhaustive” list that includes: 100 Publishing company Ultra Music said Sony Music and its subsidiaries “have a good faith belief that the works have been infringed.”
Gundam $150,000 For each work infringed, the damages sought may be at least $15 million. Ultra Music Publishing demands a jury trial.
Moxey’s company added in the complaint that this lawsuit “is only the first of many copyright infringement actions that Ultra Plaintiffs intend to bring against Defendants.”
“As Plaintiffs’ investigation into Defendants’ misconduct continues, Ultra Plaintiffs intend to pursue additional copyright infringement claims against Defendants with respect to other Ultra works that Defendants have unlawfully exploited without permission,” the lawsuit adds.
Ultra Publishing also argued in the complaint that Sony Music and its subsidiaries “routinely present themselves to the public as defenders of intellectual property rights and combatants against piracy,” but suggested that “the opposite is true.”
“The Sony Defendants themselves have knowingly, blatantly, continuously and massively pirated the Ultra Plaintiffs’ intellectual property around the world without any reason or remorse.”
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